New Delhi: The Punjab government has withdrawn a contentious legislation that proposed life imprisonment for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs.
The Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2016 enabled introducing a new amended Section 295 AA in the IPC for desecrating the religious book.
The Bill was introduced in the Punjab assembly by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-led government in 2016, in the aftermath of over hundred incidents of desecration of the holy book in various parts of the State. The government had then suspected “foreign hand” in the incidents aimed to fan communal tensions.
The existing provision, Section 295A IPC (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), makes such a crime punishable by an imprisonment of three years.
As per the records available with the Union home ministry, the Punjab government withdrew both the legislations on May 3.
SAD’s ally, the BJP, had demanded that desecration involving images and idols of gods should also be included.
The home ministry examines the Bills passed by State Assemblies that are repugnant with Central laws before they get the President’s assent to become a law.
The Bill was returned by home ministry to the State government in March 2017 as it violated the principle of secularism as mentioned in the Constitution of India.
After it came to power, the Congress-ruled government under Chief Minister Amarinder Singh sought legal opinion on the legislation and was told that the Bill could fail judicial scrutiny as it focused on a particular religion.
The home ministry recently reviewed over hundred legislations that were pending with the Centre for President’s assent. It called for a meeting of all State representatives to take a final decision on the Bills where a response was awaited from the State governments.
In 2016, a statement issued by the Punjab government after the State cabinet cleared the legislation, had said that the amendment “would provide punishment of life imprisonment for offenders committing heinous acts of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.”
“This step would act as a deterrent to prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents in future. This amendment was all the more necessitated as the existing provisions of the said Act in Section 295, 295A and 296 though deal with these matters but do not provide deterrent punishment for incidents related to sacrilege,” the statement had said.
