Anti-rape bill gets Lok Sabha nod

Only 196 MPs of 539 MPs present in the House during debate

DNA Correspondent l @DNA

New Delhi: Braving over 50 amendments moved by opposition and allies, Lok Sabha finally passed the much-awaited criminal law amendment bill providing stringent punishment for crime against women. The bill has sought to widen the definition of rape, broaden the ambit of aggravated rape and enhance the punishment for such crimes. With the DMK’s pull out taking much of political limelight, the introduction of bill was lukewarm. Most of the time during debate, the House was empty and when voting was taking place, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and many senior ministers were missing. Only 196 MPs were present in the House during the debate and voting. Winding up a five-hour debate, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the law was aimed to act as deterrent. He tried to allay fears expressed by several MPs that various provisions were prone to misuse.  He also moved an amendment to drop a clause that had fixed the age of consent for sex at 16 years. It shall now remain at 18 years, as in the Ordinance promulgated on February 3, which will expire on April 4. “Time has come to send out a loud, clear and deterrent signal that the society will not tolerate such errant behaviour,” he said, underlining that the Bill was being brought to plug loopholes in the law. With an aim of providing a strong deterrent against rapes and gangrapes, the Bill states that an offender can be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to life, meaning imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life and with a fine. It has provisions for handing out death sentence to offenders who may have been convicted earlier for such crimes. The bill, for the first time, defines stalking and voyeurism as non-bailable offences if repeated for a second time. Earlier, while moving the bill for consideration, Shinde sought the support of all parties, saying “let us honour the braveheart”, referring to the 23-year-old victim of gangrape by six persons in the national capital last year.  He said the bill has for the first time defined acid attack as a crime and grants a victim the right to self-defence. It also has provisions for awarding a minimum 10-year jail term for perpetrators of the act. The amendments seek to make specific provisions for punishment for offences of causing grievous hurt by acid attack and also for such an attempt. It also seeks to define and prescribe punishment for the offences of stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment. During the debate, CPI leader Gurdas Dasgupta and Odhisa BJD’s Pinaki Mishra opposed raising the age of consent to 18. They blamed the government for caving in under the pressure of the BJP.  DNA, 20-03-2013, p.11, http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=41606&boxid=18125&ed_date=2013-03-20&ed_code=820009&ed_page=11

Cabinet clears anti-rape bill, includes acid attacks, voyeurism and stalking

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: The Cabinet on Thursday approved a bill that will make rapists-murderers punishable by death and provides for stringent punishment for offences like acid attacks, voyeurism and stalking women. 
    The bill also lowered the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years and made ‘rape’ a gender-specific offence under which only men can be charged for it. There is a provision for death sentence if the rape victim dies or is left in a ‘persistent vegetative state’ or if the rapist is a repeat offender. 
    Rapists will be liable to a minimum jail term of 20 years extendable to imprisonment till the natural life of the convict according to the anti-rape bill that was cleared by a group of ministers and accepted by the Cabinet. The bill will be placed before an all-party meeting on March 18 to build consensus before it is brought to Parliament. 
    The government has time till March 22 to get Parliament’s approval on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013. The decision comes three months after the Delhi gang-rape brought focus on strong punishment for offences against women. 
    The Cabinet decision comes after sharp differences over the age of consent and possible misuse of certain provisions forced the government to set up a GoM to thrash out contentious provisions. The GoM finalized the draft on Wednesday.


Source:::: The Times of India, 15-03-2013, p.13, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW

Anti-rape law hangs for lack of consensus

DNA Correspondent l @DNA

New Delhi: Amid persisting differences in the cabinet, the prime minister referred the home ministry’s draft law against rape and other crimes to an empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by finance minister P Chidambaram. The minister got cracking and convened a two-hour meeting in his office. He is expected to complete the work by Wednesday evening and the bill will be ready to go before the Union cabinet on Thursday. “The sections that we have covered... all points of view have been taken into account and reconciled and a final version of the clause has emerged. We can do that for the remaining sections as well,” Chidambaram told reporters after chairing the meeting. Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath spoke to BJP’s Sushma Swaraj and proposed an all-party meeting on March 18 to sort out the differences in the draft bill before it is introduced in the Lok Sabha, possibly on the 19th. The other members in the EGoM are home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, law minister Ashwani Kumar, women and child welfare minister Krishna Tirath and telecom minister Kapil Sibal. At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Tirath objected to reducing the age for consensual sex from 18 to 16. She said lowering the age would have a cascading effect on other laws. She also insisted on using the term “sexual assault” — used in the February 3 ordinance — instead of replacing it with “rape”. Kumar said provisions pertaining to voyeurism and stalking could be misused to file false complaints. Sibal, who is also a senior lawyer, termed the bill language “too loose” which may not stand “legal scrutiny”. After the cabinet meeting, Kumar told reporters: “There is a need to make the law civil, so that it’s not used for corruption. We will bring this law before March 22 in this budget session.” Shinde too expressed confidence that the bill would be passed in the budget session. Source:::: DNA, 13-03-2013, p.01.