Anti-rape Bill sent to GoM

Govt wary of possible misuse,also calls all-party meeting on March 18

After proposing tougher laws to deal with crimes against women,the government Tuesday grew wary of its possible misuse,particularly of the provisions related to voyeurism or stalking,and constituted a Group of Ministers to insert proper safeguards in the proposals before placing it in Parliament.

The Group of Ministers,headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram,had one sitting in the evening,and expects to finalise its work by Wednesday,in time to meet the stated objective of placing the proposed law,called the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill,2013,in Parliament before the ongoing session breaks for recess on March 22.

The government has also convened an all-party meeting next Monday to discuss the issue.

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At the special meeting of the Cabinet in the morning,some ministers,including Law Minister Ashwini Kumar,pointed out that some provisions of the proposed law could easily be misused,and therefore safeguards were required to be incorporated. There were also disagreements on whether the definition of rape should be kept gender-neutral or gender-specific,and whether the age of consent for sexual contact be kept at 18 years or 16 years.

As a result,the Cabinet decided to defer its decision on the Bill and referred it to the GoM.

After the first round of meeting of the GoM,the consensus was building around making the offence of rape gender-specific,sources said. The majority of ministers were also in favour of keeping the age of consent at 16,though some,including Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath,were of the opinion that it should be 18.

The Bill,which seeks to amend various provisions of the Indian Penal Code,Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act,to provide for tougher punishment for sexual crimes against women,will,if passed by Parliament,replace an Ordinance that the government promulgated last month,bringing about similar changes with immediate effect.

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The Ordinance,which is currently in force,uses the word sexual assault instead of rape as was used earlier,thereby making the offence gender-neutral. Many womens groups wanted the word rape to be reintroduced to mean that the perpetrator of the offence was always a male while the victim was a female. The Bill brings back the word rape. The Ordinance had also raised the age of consent for sexual contact from 16 years to 18 years. The Bill has brought it back at 16 years.

The Ordinance introduced two provisions in the IPC to define offences of voyeurism and stalking and make them punishable by imprisonment of not less than one year.