It is keen to pass the Bill in the first half of current budget session
The United Progressive Alliance government is likely to convene a special Cabinet meeting in the next few days to clear the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 that imposes tougher sentences for crimes against women than those currently on the statute book.
The government is keen to pass the Bill in the first half of the current budget session so that the ordinance promulgated three weeks ahead of it does not lapse. It wants to underscore its sincerity in improving the security of women.
On Friday, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, underplaying reported differences in the government over certain provisions in the anti-rape law, told journalists: “The Law Ministry has given its views. The Ministry of Home Affairs is putting together the Bill. It will come to the Cabinet. May be there will be a special Cabinet meeting early. There are no differences in the government.”
Of course, there were those, he said, who endorsed the expression “sexual assault” that has been used in the ordinance, but others wanted the word “rape” to be retained. The question of whether the age of consent should be 18 or 16 is also yet to be addressed, he added, but the Cabinet would sort that out. The government, he stressed, had “every intention of passing the Bill before the deadline which is March 22 [the day the first half of the session concludes].
Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar too ruled out any delay in the passage of the Bill. The government, he said, would make a law “that would be credible, purposive, efficient, efficacious and [able to] withstand the scrutiny of the courts and the test of time.”
The new law will not just replace the ordinance — it will also replace the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2012, introduced in the Lok Sabha in December last.
A key provision in the ordinance is that if an incident of rape leads to the death of the victim or leaves her in a vegetative state, it can attract the death penalty: the Bill retains this. It also enhances the seven-year sentence for those convicted of rape to 20 years, criminalises public sexual harassment ranging from cat calls to groping, and provides more stringent punishment in specific cases of stalking and acid attacks.
Mr. Chidambaram’s statement was a reiteration of what Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said on Thursday: he had also said that the UPA government was committed to seeking parliamentary approval for the anti-rape law in the first half of the current session, and had added that a special Cabinet meeting would be held for it shortly.
Clearly, the government’s parliamentary managers have been hard at work. For, on the eve of the budget session, senior ministerial sources expressed concern about the possibility of the ordinance lapsing as sections of the Opposition had been pressing for the Bill that will replace it to be sent to a Standing Committee of Parliament for another look at its provisions.
The government notified the ordinance with much fanfare as evidence of its sincerity to deal with crimes against women — an issue that had seen social protests across the country following the horrendous sexual assault of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi last December. Politically, its passage — as also of the Lokpal Bill — is very important for the UPA government, with a string of Assembly elections scheduled for this year and the general elections in 2014. It would help it send a message that it means business, especially to the urban electorate.
India that honours female deities should be the first to honour women and treat them with respect and as equals. The recent cases in India has astonished the civilized and educated world. The equality should be in the home, offices (and pay), and everywhere. More young people should be brought as M.Ps.I hope India would from now on lead the world in this respect. Rape within and without marriage and sexual assault or molestations should be met with castration and prison terms.
Women of India should rise up together and refuse to vote and adopt Gandhian non violent action until they are treated equally. Husbands (even the so called elite husbands) should not treat their wives as their own properties. They also should be punished.
My great grand father in the 19th century wrote to Queen Victoria from the State of Travancore to put a stop to the plight of women there. Later a law was passed in Parliament here in London to end such practice there.I pray to see that day!
Can we expect a Congress-led government to pass a strong anti-rape law, when the Congress Party is shielding known rapists and womanisers, and honouring them by electing/nominating them to positions of power and responsibility both at the Centre and in some states?
Women and Child Welfare Ministry rightly wants to maintain the age
limit for ‘consent for sex’ at age- 18 itself. If the limit is lowered
to 16, then there are chances for perpetrators of rapes get exonerated
from punishment on rapes while they cunningly prevail of courts
proving that rape victims aged above 16 have consented for sexual
intercourse, despite being minors! Many culprits will get shelter
under law and will get relieved from rape charges as in the case of
the verdict on ‘Suryanelli’ case at the Kerala HC.
I pray the cabinet to take note of the suspected disadvantage to
sexual victims if the age limit for ‘consent for sex’ is not
maintained at age-18 and reduced to age-16. Let all new measures
except the amendment for the said age limit (from age-18 to age-16)
replace the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2012, introduced in Lok
Sabha in December.
R.Basant’s recent lament that he would have ignored the ‘consent of
intercourse’ based on which the Suryanelli appellants (accused) were
chosen to concede the benefit of doubt, if the Parliament had accepted
the enhancement of age limit to 18 as advocated by the 9th Law
Commission through 84th Report presented in 1980 without delaying up
to 2012 is nothing but an attempt for an embellishment on the
blemished verdict of Kerala HC! Fortunately we could see a turning
point in the case when the SC Bench consisting of Justices A.K.
Patnaik and Gyan Sudha Misra had ordered the Kerala HC to hear the
appeal afresh and dispose of it within six months’ time.
The whole country know that It was atrocious for
the then High Court Division Bench led by Justice K.A. Abdul Gafoor
together with R.Basant to exonerate all accused by granting the
“benefit of doubt” in the case as pointed out in the January 20, 2005
verdict for taking it for granted that the minor victim, aged 16+ then
would have rightly giver her consent to sexual intercourse, which
cannot be treated as rape by perpetrators! It is a different issue of
absurdity to believe that she had given her consent for having sex
with many people. Of course the Kerala HC verdict did cause injustice
to the minor victim who had remonstrated against illegal custody and
rape by 42 men against her wishes within 45 days long back in 1996.
Factually one of the accused, Lawyer- Dharmarajan had raped her prior
to his becoming her custodian by keeping her in locked rooms at
Tourist Bungalows at different locations.
It will be a disaster again if the age limit for
‘Consent For Sex’ is reduced back to age-16.We should know that once
the said age limit was raised from 16 to 18 years based on the Bill
approved by Union Cabinet in April, 2012 which actually terminated the
‘age of consent’ for minors who are above 16, but below 18.
Accordingly any sexual relations with a girl or even a boy below age-
18 is considered as RAPE, regardless of whether it is consensual or
not. It is to be noted that this protection of law could not be
extended to the 'Suryanelli' victim who had crossed 16 years of age at
the time of series of rapes, as recently elucidated by the then
Justice in the Kerala High Court, R.Basant. Very cleverly R.Basant
used the then minor victim’s detrimental ‘age factor’ to the
beneficial acquittal of 35 perpetrators who raped her; but still he
shed tears for her!
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