Bengal bill proposes death or life in jail till death for all rape cases
Times of India | 31 August 2024
Kolkata: The stringent anti-rape bill that will be tabled by Bengal govt in the assembly on Monday proposes to treat all incidents of rape — even if the victim survives — as murder to be punished with death or life in jail. It will also call for a time-bound trial and an enhanced compensation or fine to be collected from the guilty. In case of rape-murder, the bill proposes only death penalty and a hefty fine to be collected from the perpetrator's family.
Current Indian criminal laws allow death penalty for gang rape of a woman under 18, for rape or gang rape of girls below 12, if rape leads to death or leaves victim in vegetative state and for repeat offenders.
By introducing the "imprisonment for the remainder of natural life" clause along with death penalty for all rape cases, the proposed bill will try to differ from and avoid the fate of previous such bills passed by other states. The Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, 2019 and Maharashtra Shakti Bill 2020 had only one penalty — mandatory death — for all rape and gang-rape cases. Passed unanimously by the state legislatures, both bills are yet to get assent from the President.
Supreme Court had in the 1983 Mithu versus State of Punjab case struck down Sect 303 IPC that had ‘mandatory death' for life convicts committing murder saying it violated fundamental rights of equality before law (Art 14) and right to life (Art 21) by not allowing a court to exercise its discretion and, therefore, would result in "unfair, unjust and unreasonable procedure" that can deprive a person of his/her life.
"We have researched multiple Supreme Court and high court judgments on this issue. We propose to have both death and rigorous imprisonment for the remainder of a person's life and fine/compensation for trauma, rehabilitation and treatment of the victim. For rape and murder, the provisions will be death and fine (from kin). A shorter fixed period for investigation and trial is being proposed. Other legal details are also being discussed threadbare and multiple stakeholders are being consulted," said Sanjay Basu, senior standing counsel for Bengal govt in Supreme Court.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 amended IPC to allow death penalty in rape cases when it led to death or left the victim in a persistent vegetative state, and in cases of repeat offenders. The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2018 provided for death penalty for rape and gang rape of girls below the age of 12. Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 keeps all the old penal provisions and adds that gang rape of a woman under 18 (Clause 70(2)) is punishable by death.
Both the 2019 Disha Bill in Andhra Pradesh and 2020 Shakti Bill in Maharashtra hit a wall because of the mandatory death penalty clause. They did not provide for any other punishment. Aping these would have resulted in the proposed Bengal bill meeting the same fate, lawyers argued.
Speaker Biman Banerjee said, "A special session will be convened from Monday. State govt is well within its Constitutional rights to amend penal laws but I cannot comment on the fate of such Bills in other states."