Uttar Pradesh government asks Centre for death in rape cases of minor girls

Apr 19, 2018, 06:40 AM IST 

In a major decision aimed at curbing crime against women, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to send a proposal to the Modi government for effecting amendments into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and POCSO Act for awarding death sentence to accused involved in the rape of minor girl children.

Startled by the Unnao rape and murder and a sudden rise in rape cases of minor girl children in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took the decision after holding a high-level meeting on Wednesday with the Principal Secretary Home, the DGP and other DG and ADG rank officials. “The State government has decided to send a proposal to the Central government for effecting further amendments into Section 376 of the IPC and POCSO Act to make provisions for awarding capital punishment to those found guilty of raping a minor girl child,” said a government spokesperson.

Uttar Pradesh is the first state across the country advocating capital punishment for accused in rape cases of minors. The spokesperson said that the state government believes that severe punishment and speedy trial would prove to be a deterrent in curbing heinous crimes against women.

Source: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-uttar-pradesh-government-asks-centre-for-death-in-rape-cases-of-minor-girls-2606440 (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Delhi assembly passes resolution for bill to make stalking non-bailable, award death to rapists of minors

By PTI |New Delhi |Published: March 27, 2018 8:29:35 pm 

The law should be amended to make stalking a non-bailable offence. The law should also be amended to make juvenile rape punishable with the death penalty," the resolution stated.

The Delhi Assembly Tuesday passed a resolution seeking amendments to existing laws to make stalking a non-bailable offence and to award the death penalty to those convicted of raping minors. The resolution, moved by AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, demanded that the Delhi government present a Bill asking the Centre to amend the law. Aam Aadmi Party MLA Alka Lamba had demanded that the government make stalking a non-bailable offence in an anti-stalking bill. Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain told the House that the government would present the Bill seeking amendments.

“The government will table the Bill. It will be sent to the Centre once it is passed by the Delhi Assembly,” Jain said. The minister added that he hoped the Centre would not object to it. “The law should be amended to make stalking a non-bailable offence. The law should also be amended to make juvenile rape punishable with the death penalty,” the resolution stated.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/delhi-assembly-passes-resolution-for-bill-to-make-stalking-non-bailable-award-death-to-rapists-of-minors-5113527/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Arunachal Pradesh becomes 4th Indian state to approve death penalty for rape of girls under 12 years

India Blooms News Service | @indiablooms | 16 Mar 2018

Itanagar, Mar 16 (IBNS) : In a major development, Arunachal Pradesh became 4th Indian state after Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana to approve death penalty for rape of girls under 12 years age.

Arunachal Pradesh Assembly, 2018

The Aruchal Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Friday passed a bill for death penalty for rape of girls under 12 years. The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the Criminal Laws (Arunachal Pradesh) Amendment Bill, 2018 which to provide capital punishment (death penalty) to those convicted of raping girls under 12 years. 

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu tweeted, " Arunachal today became the fourth state in the country to approve death sentence for those convicted of rapes of girls below 12 years of age. The Criminal Laws (Arunachal Pradesh) Amendment Bill, 2018 was passed today to impose actions on those committing such crimes. @PMOIndia." The members of the house passed the amendment bill unanimously.

The bill as passed seeking to amend the sections 354, 354 (B), 354 (D) of IPC and sections 376AA and 376D of IPC have been added in the amendment bill. The bill also provides amendment to POCSO, Indian Evidence Act and Code of Criminal Procedure.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath,Image:Pema Khandu Twitter page)

Rajasthan passes bill for death penalty for rape of girls aged 12 & below

By Express Web Desk |New Delhi |Updated: March 9, 2018 7:24:20 pm 

Rajasthan becomes the second state to have such law after Madhya Pradesh. Crime in India, 2016 revealed that 19,920 children were allegedly victims of child rape in 2016 alone.

Rajasthan on Friday approved a bill providing for the death penalty to those convicted of raping girls under 12 years of age. Madhya Pradesh has already cleared a bill with similar provisions in December last year while Haryana Cabinet this February gave its nod to a proposal to bring in such a legislation. Maharashtra and Karnataka are also considering the death penalty for child rapists. State Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria introduced The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018 on Friday in the assembly, which was passed in the House by a voice vote following a debate. The bill seeks to add section 376-AA in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which will be defined as: “Punishment for rape on a woman up to twelve years of age. Whoever commits rape on a woman up to twelve years of age shall be punished with death, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than fourteen years but which may extend to imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Two amendments were made in the bill including that the convict cannot leave the prison for life even after completing 14 years of sentence. “We have made two amendments in the case. Added life sentence & life imprisonment for convicts in offenses against girls below 12 years of age, also made a provision that convict can’t leave the prison for life even after completing 14 years of sentence,” said Rajasthan Home Minister G.C. Kataria. A similar provision, 376-DD, will be added for gangrape. In the ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’ for bringing in the Bill, the government said, “It has come to the notice of the State Government that the offence relating to child rape and child gang-rape are taking place every now and then. Such crimes are heinous and turn the life of the victim into hell.”

Earlier in February, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, in a reply to the Budget debate in the Assembly, had announced that the state government will bring in more stringent punishment, “including capital punishment”, for rape of girls under 12 years. According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report, the cases of crimes against children have shown a steady rise in Rajasthan. The state recorded 4,034 such cases in 2016, which is 3.8 per cent of the crimes against children (98,344) registered across the country. It stands fourth in the crime against women category. In 2015, the state had registered 3,689 cases of crime against children, which increased by 345 in the year under review. As per the NCRB data, state police registered 728 cases of child rape in 2015, which increased to 858 in 2016.

(With PTI inputs)

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/in-rajasthan-those-found-found-guilty-of-raping-girls-below-12-to-get-death-penalty/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

The rape of a minor girl aged 12 or below is now punishable by death (Haryana)

Manjeet Sehgal Chandigarh

February 27, 2018

The Haryana government on Tuesday amended sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to make punishments for sexual offences against women and children more stringent, an official spokesperson said.

Haryana Government Cabinet Meeting (27 February 2018)

A new section makes the rape or gangrape of a minor girl below the age of 12 an offence punishable by death, or with a minimum prison sentence of 14 years that can be extended to life in jail. Convicts will also be fined. Another provision, part of a different section, concerns the rape of a girl aged 12 or below by one person, or people constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention.

Each offender will be deemed to have committed rape, and can be given either a death sentence, or a minimum prison term of 20 years (this can be extended to life in jail). Fines imposed under this section will be paid to the victim. As well, under IPC Section 354, assaulting a woman or using criminal force on her - either with the intention to outrage her modesty or knowing that such an act will likely outrage her modesty - is punishable by a prison term of two to seven years, and a fine.

And under Section 354D(2), stalkers can be fined and sent to jail for as many as three years, at the time of the first conviction. Repeat and habitual offenders can spend up to seven years behind bars. These two sections, 354 and 354D(2), were among the four that were amended Tuesday at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The others were 376A and 376D. Khattar's government has faced flak for a series of gangrapes recently reported in his state.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/in-haryana-the-rape-of-a-minor-girl-aged-12-or-below-is-now-punishable-by-death-1178848-2018-02-27 (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Cabinet clears Bill allowing death penalty for hijackers

Cabinet also approves changes to Companies Act, 2013, a move designed to make it easier for companies to do business in India

FIRST PUBLISHED: WED, DEC 03 2014. 12 05 AM IST

Tarun Shukla | Prashant K. Nanda | Shreeja Sen 

New Delhi: The Union cabinet on Tuesday cleared a strong anti-hijacking Bill that provides for stringent punishment, including the death penalty, for the hijack of Indian airplanes, 15 years after an Indian Airlines aircraft was commandeered by terrorists during the tenure of a previous Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP-led) government. Also approved were changes to the Companies Act, 2013, a move designed to make it easier for companies to do business in India. “The (anti-hijacking) Bill provides death punishment for the offence of hijacking, where such offence results in the death of a hostage or of a security personnel; or with imprisonment for life and the moveable and immoveable property of such persons shall also be liable to be confiscated,” the government said in a statement late in the evening. Indian Airlines (now Air India) flight IC-814 was hijacked on its way back to Delhi from Kathmandu half an hour after take off on 24 December 1999. 

Taken over by five Pakistani hijackers with 180 passengers and crew, the flight was forced to make a detour to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The hijacking drama continued for several days with family members of passengers pressuring the Indian government to help free the hostages. An agreement was reached for the release of the passengers in exchange for three jailed militants—Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Zargar. Then foreign minister Jaswant Singh personally escorted the freed militants to Kandahar—a move that was widely criticized. “After the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 in December, 1999, it was felt necessary for providing the award of death penalty to perpetrators of the act of hijacking. The incident of 9/11, where aircraft were used as weapons, also created the need to further amend the existing Act,” the government added. The Anti-Hijacking (Amendment) Bill, 2010, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August 2010. 

The cabinet on Tuesday also approved the introduction of the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2014, in Parliament to make changes to the Companies Act, 2013. The amendments will make it easier for companies to do business, a major goal of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Once approved by Parliament, it will also ensure severe punishment for those collecting illegal deposits from the public. The 14 proposed amendments, which were approved by the Union cabinet on Tuesday, also include provisions to ensure that fraud beyond a certain threshold be mandatorily reported by the auditors to the government. Another highlight of the changes proposed is the removal of the requirement of the minimum paid-up capital for companies. An aspect which could question the transparency regime is the proposal to remove public inspection of board resolutions. Yet another provision suggested is to allow writing off of past losses prior to declaring dividend. The cabinet also cleared draft legislation on coal block auctions to replace an ordinance that was promulgated to auction coal mines cancelled by the Supreme Court. 

The Bill to replace the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014, is likely to be placed before the Parliament during the ongoing winter session. “Cabinet has approved the bill,” Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed person familiar with the matter as saying after the Cabinet meeting in New Delhi. The Supreme Court had in September cancelled allocation of 204 coal blocks, including 42 operational mines and another 32 ready-to-start blocks. The government, through the ordinance, started the process of auctioning at least 74 operational or ready-to-operate blocks with the target of allocating them by March, well before the deadline set by the Supreme Court for companies operating mines to wind up operations. The ordinance has been opposed by the central trade unions, including BJP-affiliated trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. 

Trade unions have jointly opposed the government’s proposal to allow private companies to mine coal and sell it in the open market, a right till now reserved with the state-run Coal India Ltd. Meanwhile, the government has already said that the 74 coal mines, which the government plans to auction to specific end-users in the first phase of bidding on 11 February, will not require any environmental clearances. The auction will be for the private sector, while state-owned companies will be allotted mines. The government had last week announced auctioning and allotment of 74 blocks in the first phase of bidding. 

These blocks have the potential to produce 210 million tonnes of coal. The government had already made it clear that the number of mines a company can bid will be capped to avoid monopoly. Until 9.15pm on Tuesday, the government hadn’t issued a formal statement on this. The cabinet also approved amendments in the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) Act, 1976, to enhance authorized and issued capital to strengthen their capital base and to bring flexibility in the shareholding between the central government, state governments and sponsor banks. The term of the non-official directors appointed by the central government will be fixed not exceeding three years, a cabinet note said. “The amendments will ensure financial stability of RRBs which will enable them to play a greater role in financial inclusion and meeting credit requirements of rural areas and the Board of RRBs will be strengthened,” the cabinet note said. 

Regional Rural Banks were established under Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976, to create an alternative channel to the cooperative credit structure and to ensure sufficient institutional credit for the rural and agriculture sector. RRBs are jointly owned by the central government, the concerned state government and sponsor banks, with the issued capital shared in the proportion of 50%, 15% and 35%, respectively. The cabinet committee on economic affairs, which also met on Tuesday, approved four-laning of three national highways—Singhara-Binjabahal section of National Highway-6 in Odisha, Nagina-Kashipur section of National Highway-74 in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Lucknow-Sultanpur section of National Highway-56 in Uttar Pradesh. These projects will cost the government over Rs.3,870 crore. The cabinet also approved signing of a treaty on transfer of sentenced persons between India and Qatar. It will facilitate Indian prisoners imprisoned in Qatar or vice-versa to be near their families for serving the remaining part of their sentence and will facilitate their social rehabilitation. PTI contributed to this story.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/fySchfV0x3qEiy0RyQycFJ/Cabinet-clears-Bill-allowing-death-penalty-for-hijackers.html [last accessed 06.02.2015]