The “Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill, 2020”— which has been modelled along the lines of the Andhra Pradesh Disha Act Criminal Law (AP Amendment) Act, 2019 – had been tabled in both the Houses of the State Legislature in December last year.
The Shakti Bill was presented by Maharashtra’s Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Wednesday before the Legislative Assembly. Walse-Patil, while tabling the report, said that the joint select committee held 13 meetings on the Bill and finalised the proposed amendments in meetings held earlier this month.
Details:
The Bill, tabled in the Winter Session of the House in 2020, aims to curb crime against women and children. It was then referred to the joint select committee of the legislature tasked with submitting a report after holding consultations with women and lawyer organisations as well as other stakeholders.
Outraging Modesty Of Woman
The committee has proposed punishment for men, women and transgenders if a woman’s modesty is insulted and she is intimidated by any mode of communication. Earlier, only men could be punished. Walse-Patil said,
A new section 354E of the IPC has been proposed to take action against those outraging the modesty of women through electronic or digital means.
Section 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) will be amended, as per which two social workers granted by the state government’s Women and Child Welfare Department or two public servants can be taken as independent witnesses in case of sexual harassment case.
MDO Take: Once again, the government has failed to make such an law gender neutral. Also, outraging modesty of women on social media is very subjective and should have been defined clearly to avoid unnecessary clogging of courts with frivolous cases.
Period of Investigation
It has also proposed to increase the period of investigation for crimes against women to 30 days from the existing 15 days. If the probe is not completed in time, an extension of 30 days — earlier it was 7 days — can be given.
Punishment Against Social Media Platforms
The committee has also proposed increasing punishment against social media platforms, Internet and mobile telephony data providers for failure to share the data for police investigation.
Earlier, the provision of punishment in this regard was simple imprisonment up to one month or a fine of Rs 5 lakh or both. Now, the committee has increased the imprisonment up to three months and imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh or both.
Filing False Cases
This is surely a welcome step which will at least act as some deterrent for all who file false cases. The committee has proposed imprisonment not less than three years and up to three years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for providing false information to any person or filing false cases of sexual assaults. Earlier, the provision was simple imprisonment up to one year and a fine, which was not specified.
The report added,
The provisions under the bill are being made more stringent to punish the culprits and set deterrence. However, it is also necessary that the innocent are saved and so severe punishment is required against people filing false or wrongful complaints.
Walse-Patil said that the original Bill did not have a provision for filing anticipatory bail plea in case of false complaints or if a person is harassed deliberately. He added,
The committee has decided to drop the recommendation. Now, one would be able to file for pre-arrest bail pleas in such cases.
The new recommendations have cancelled this provision taking advice from senior lawyers.
MDO Take: We shall have to witness whether this law will be strictly enacted upon women who file such false cases. There will be a thin line between what the woman assumes as justice Vs false case. For eg. rape on pretext of marriage will not be categorised as False Rape case, since the same is subjective and left to the wisdom of courts.
Acid Attack
Dealing with Acid Attack survivors, the Home Minister added Section 326 of the IPC applied in case of acid attack to be amended to make provision of minimum 15-years to maximum life imprisonment to the guilty along with monetary fine. The expenditure of plastic surgery and face reconstruction operations will be taken care from the monetary fine to be charged on the guilty.
Background To Shakti Bill
In December 2019, the Maharashtra government had announced that it will bring a law on the lines of Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Act, which has a provision of the death penalty for rape. Under the Shakti Bill, the government has proposed the death penalty in serious offences of rape, acid attack and child abuse and the period of punishment has also been extended.
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