After being deferred twice due to sharp differences between Ministers, the anti-rape Bill providing stringent punishment for rape was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday. The Criminal law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 has made rape gender-specific, lowered the age of consent from 18 to 16 years and defined stalking, voyeurism and acid attack as criminal offence.
The Bill, brought after the Delhi gang-rape incident, provides for a minimum punishment of 20 years of jail which can be extended to the natural life of the convict. It also provides for death penalty in case of death of rape victim or her going into a persistent vegetative state and for repeat offenders. Sustained stalking will be a non-bailable offence while first offence of voyeurism will be treated as bailable.
Earlier, the government faced major embarrassment when differences between various ministries forced it to constitute a GoM headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. To iron out the differences among various ministries, the GoM and Cabinet ignored Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath’s opposition to reducing the age of consent and making rape gender-specific.
Provisions seeking strong action against those filing false complaints were dropped as it was felt that existing provisions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were adequate to deal with such cases and it was only a matter of enforcing them. It has been made mandatory for hospitals to provide free medical treatment to women victims of sexual offence.
The Bill now faces a major challenge of getting Parliamentary approval as parties like SP, BSP, RJD and JD(U) have reservations about some of its provisions especially on reducing the age of consent from 18 to 16 years which they feel is against family norms.
However, the government has already started informal consultations to bring the Opposition on board and is confident that the remaining differences would be sorted out at the all-party meeting on Monday. The Business Advisory Committee has even allotted time for debating the Bill in the House. The Bill will replace the Ordinance.