India gets a new anti-rape law as President signs the Bill

www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, April 3, 2013: President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the anti-rape bill which provides for life term and even death sentence for rape convicts besides stringent punishment for offences like acid attacks, stalking and voyeurism.

Mukherjee accorded his assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill-2013 yesterday, brought against the backdrop of the country-wide outrage over Delhi gangrape, and it will now be called the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, an official release said today.

The law, passed by Lok Sabha on March 19 and by Rajya Sabha on March 21, has replaced an Ordinance promulgated on February 3.

It amends various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Indian Evidence Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

With an aim of providing a strong deterrent against crimes like rapes, the new law states that an offender can be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to life, meaning imprisonment for the remainder of the convict’s natural life and with a fine.

It has provisions for handing out death sentence to offenders who may have been convicted earlier for such crimes.

The law, for the first time, defines stalking and voyeurism as non-bailable offences if repeated for a second time. Perpetrators of acid attack will attract a 10-year jail.

It also defines acid attack as a crime besides granting a victim the right to self-defence. It also has provisions for imposing a minimum 10-year jail term for perpetrators of such acts.

The law has fixed age for consensual sex at 18 years.