Any act of disrespect to Guru Granth Sahib would fetch imprisonment for life term. Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday gave its nod to amendment in Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code raising the term of imprisonment from two years to life term for an act of disregard to the holy book of Sikh religion.
The punishment for other holy texts other than Guru Granth Sahib would remain the same as 10 years under the provisions of Section 295 of IPC.
A total of 8 amendment bills were moved in the Vidhan Sabha and all were cleared without any debate as the opposition benches were blank after the walkout by Congress.
Punjab assembly approved the amendment in the absence of most of the opposition members as Congress had staged walkout before Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal moved the bill in the house.
Congress MlA Tarlochan Singh had moved an amendment and sought inclusion of Bible, Geeta, Ramayana and Quran etc, in the legislation, but the amendment was rejected by the ruling alliance in the absence of
opposition.
Although the leader of opposition tried to catch up with the debate in between and said that the disregard to statues installed religiously should also be included in the legislation and any kind of disrespect to such statues should also be dealt with sternly.
He also said that only making laws is not going to help and Government needed to act against the culprits of desecration.
Punjab Government had announced to make law stringent after a series of incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in the state.
Two youngsters had died in police firing on the protesting youth against the acts of sacrilege in Bargari last
year.