Some events that took place last week are matters of concern for all of us. The first matter relates to crimes against women and children. The Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by PM Modi approved an Ordinance (which has now received Presidential approval) on death penalty for those convicted of raping children below the age of twelve. Alongside, there are provisions for fast-track courts to be set up to deal with rape cases and all police stations and hospitals to have special forensic kits. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will maintain a national database and profile sexual offenders. The data will be shared with the States and Union Territories for tracking and probe. There will be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape of a girl under the age o sixteen. Minimum punishment in case of rape has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to ten years, extendable up to life.
There has been an unexpected increase in crimes against women. The most disturbing have been the cases of rape of tender children. The rape is often followed by murder. The IPC, Evidence Act, CrPC and the POCSO Act will now be amended as the Ordinance has received Presidential approval. In many newspapers, the report of Cabinet approval of the Ordinance found place along with minor girls being raped in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
The Cabinet’s move came after nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu & Kashmir and a nine-year-old in Surat and a girl in Unnao. The POCSO Act had been formulated to effectively address sexual exploitation of children. New fast-track courts will deal with such cases; and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all police stations and hospitals in the long term.
This is what could have been criticised as kneejerk populist measures, which would not curb sexual violations in our kind of society. Hitherto, insensitive methods of police investigation, tardy filing of charge-sheets, delayed forensic reports, insensitive counselling, uneven disbursement of compensation to rape survivors, inadequate witness protection and the vagaries of built-in procedural delays that plague our justice delivery system haunt the affected persons. Finally, it has to be acknowledged that the crisis intensifies depending upon manifestation of the existing criminal justice system. The low rate of conviction has been found fault with for good reasons. What is more disturbing is the uncanny impunity with which sexual crimes are committed. According to the NCRB, the figure of repeat of sexual offenders is on the high side. Capital punishment as such would not bring down figures, unless sociological remedies are also found. The said attitudinal orientations have to be suitably harmonised so as not to prompt deprivity to take the lead. It is reasonable to infer that death sentence will not necessarily reduce the number of unfortunate incidences. There has to be a reorientation of the societal attitude so as not to look upon girl child and women as commodities. The aberrations that have emanated in the last few weeks are disturbing and need to be curbed. The Government would do well to review the situation after a reasonable period so as to ensure effective remedial measures.
The second matter of concern is the skyrocketing petroleum prices when the international price has been on the lower side over the last two to three years. Consumers are disturbed over paying the highest of the prices when the international prices are low. The allegation is that the Government is pick-pocketing without any concern for the consumer. It has been argued that the fiscal measures add to the burden of price without any appropriate benefit to consumers. If the Governments, including the State Governments, decrease the taxation burden on petroleum products, a lot of relief would come to the consumer. It looks as though the price is manipulated against the consumer’s interest. It has been suggested by some that the State Government should reduce the tax burden to give a substantial relief to the consumer. But response in this regard is yet to come from the Governments. Bringing petroleum products under the GST regime is also in the realm of politics.
Some political parties like the BJD have started agitations against the spurt in the petroleum products’ prices. Behind any composite price are hidden taxes imposed under different nomenclatures. This confrontational attitude between the Centre and the State may not be fruitful in the long run. In this cyclical run up prices, there may be fluctuations either way. But we cannot be oblivious of the fact that last three years or so has seen declining trends in crude oil prices. The continuing hike of price of petroleum products brings in an element of unjust enrichment in the hands of the Central Government. In fact, the money remains as part of revenue earnings of the concerned public sector entity. Thus, it provides a good resource bed for the Government to command over enormous unethically extracted funds through artificially administered prices. The cause is worth fighting for.
The third matter of concern is the dried-up ATMs. This could have been taken care of with a little bit of increased alertness, including taking up remedial steps in time. Assurances have been held out that the problem will be solved within days. It is forgotten that such eventuality should not have been permitted to happen. It reminded one of the days after the demonetisation. ATM is a service to the customer, to whom the money belongs. The failure of the system of delivery of currency notes leads to great inconvenience to the customer. It is necessary that the Central Government ensures remedial steps.
The fourth matter of importance is the new law relating to properties of fugitives with the new Ordinance: Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018. This provides for confiscation of properties and assets of economic offenders like loan defaulters who flee the country to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. The Ordinance is geared towards confiscating properties of economic offenders like Nirav Modi who have left the country to avoid facing criminal prosecution. The provisions of Ordinance will apply to the offenders who refuse to return, persons against whom an arrest warrant has been issued for a scheduled offence as well as willful bank loan defaulters with outstanding of over Rs 100 crore. Economic offenders will be tried under the Prevention of Money laundering Act. The Ordinance also provides for confiscation of assets even without conviction and paying off by selling off the fugitive’s property. The fugitive economic offender, according to the Ordinance, is the person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued or a person who is guilty of cheque dishonour for insufficiency of funds, money laundering and transactions defrauding creditors. The fugitive offender is one who has left the country to avoid prosecution or refused to return to face prosecution. The law has to be set in motion by a Director or Deputy Director acting under the PMlA, 2002. Requisite application has to be made before a special court designated under the 2002 Act to declare a person as a fugitive economic offender. The application has to contain the reasons to believe that an individual is a fugitive economic offender. A shortcoming in the legal framework has been remedied by this Ordinance. .
With these problematic events, it is a matter of concern for all of us to respond and express ourselves so as not to permit manipulations through vested interests. As the Supreme Court has said in a recent judgment, politics has to be played in the hall of democracy. There is a special place for “judiciary”. But living as we do within our community ethos, we are bound to be influenced by these events. It is in public interest and in the interest of our democratic polity that the alert citizens do express their views and do not become mute witnesses to sectarian machinations.
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com )