New-Delhi, 13th March: The Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the hard law against rape and other crimes is likely to finalize its report on Wednesday and send it to the Union Cabinet.
In the backdrop of persisting differences in the Cabinet, the GoM held its first meeting yesterday and reported substantial progress in evolving a consensus on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013.
The decision was taken to refer to a GoM headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram the Bill which seeks to replace the Ordinance issued on February 3. Soon after, the GoM held its first meeting.
“Now we have completed the work substantially. I think we will require another hour or so,” Chidambaram said reporters yesterday.
“Sections that we have covered, all points of view have been taken into account and reconciled and the final version of the clause has emerged and we can do that for the remaining sections also and for Wednesday the work will be complete,” he said.
Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saw some ministers like the Law Minister insisting on adequate safeguards with regard to provisions on stalking to check against false complaints, sources said.
The two issues came up for discussion at the meeting of the GoM, sources said.
There are also differences on some other issues like replacing the term ‘rape’ – which is more gender specific – with ‘sexual assault’ – which is gender neutral.
The Ordinance has to be approved by Parliament before its recess from March 22, failing which it would lapse on April 4.
Lengthy inter-ministerial consultations had taken place on the issue of lowering of the age of consent from 18 years to 16 with the Women and Child Development Ministry strongly opposing the move.
The Bill retains a key provision of the ordinance under which if rape leads to death of the victim or leaves her in a vegetative state; it can also attract death penalty.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply