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Practising restorative justice is a good thing, according to activist and senior advocate Flavia Agnes, but there are loopholes to be plugged Representational purpose only In a recent case

quashed by the Bombay High Court, five youth accused of sexual assault were ordered to sweep the streets of Mumbai for a month. Reactions to this ideology of doing community service instead

of any other punishment, brought forth mixed perspectives. LESSONS NOT LEARNED Bhanu Advani, a 23-year-old law student from Mumbai is outraged at the thought of community service for

convicts, “One must serve his sentence in prison. If not he should be taught a lesson by public humiliation, where everyone sees him as a criminal”. Similar are the views of 21-year-old

Shreeda Walwadkar, who studies Law at the Indian Law Society in Pune. Infuriated, she exclaims, “Individuals convicted have the ability to think, and once a crime is done he must pay, even

if it is imprisonment.” Calling it the Indian chalta-hai attitude, she says it is unfair to the victim, and a bad example for others.However, Prakkash G. Rohiira, a Law student at the G.J

Law College in Bandra says, “Punishment administered must be in proportion to the crime. Restorative justice is good for less serious crimes, but for sexual offences, robberies, and murders,

community service is not enough.” COMMUNITY SERVICE AS A BOON Advocate Vinod Kashid, has been working with criminal cases for the past six years in Mumbai; he looks at community service as

a healthy way of dealing with convicts, “Once the criminal tag is put on a person, there is no way of returning to normal life. Our society will not give him a second chance to improve and

be a better person”. Community service educates a person, but its meaning is often misinterpreted, believes 20-year-old Bryan Pillai, a student at the Government Law College in Mumbai. “The

first step to dealing with an offender is to educate him and recognize community service as a responsible way of punishing an offender.” However there is a need for a well-thought-out

process for offenders who are given community service, and this calls for reforms in the way our legal system works,” says Bryan. FIXING LOOPHOLES Practising restorative justice is a good

thing, according to activist and senior advocate Flavia Agnes, but there are loopholes to be plugged. “Restorative justice should teach the person certain values through counselling. Merely

sweeping roads or doing community service does not guarantee any change, its success depends on how well thought out the program is, after the judgement is given.”