Amendment of criminal law delayed

"New Delhi, March 7: Divisions among three ministries forced the Union cabinet today to defer a decision on amendments to the law dealing with rape.

The criminal law amendment bill, in the pipeline for the past two years, was modified to incorporate some suggestions of the Justice Verma committee and was scheduled to be taken up by the cabinet today.

But as a consensus could not be reached between the ministries of law, home and women and child development, the draft has been put on hold till next week.

The three ministries are primarily at loggerheads over three provisions drawn up by the home ministry ' age of consent, replacement of the word "sexual assault" with rape and inclusion of voyeurism.

The women and child development ministry feels that the age of consent for sex should remain at 18 in tune with the Protection of Children Against Sexual Violence Act. The home ministry has proposed that the floor be lowered to 16 years. The law ministry, however, wants the age to be brought down further in a staggered manner.

Intercourse below the age of consent is considered statutory rape. The ministries of home and law contend that a lower age of consent will stop criminalisation of teen sex. "It is imperative that the age of consent is lowered. Otherwise, it is a weapon in the hands of parents and police to use it against consenting youngsters," said a home ministry official.

Sources said the law ministry was in favour of a layered threshold, where the age of the victim and the perpetrator will also be taken into account, instead of a blanket one.

Women and child ministry sources, however, feel that lowering the age of consent will lead to more abuse of children. "When the legal age to marry is 18, the legal age for sexual intercourse cannot be 16. There are also fears that teen pregnancies and abortions will increase, giving rise to health risks," said an official.

Another bone of contention among the ministries is the use of the word "rape" instead of sexual assault.

The home ministry ignored a Verma committee recommendation which proposed that the words "sexual assault" should be used because of the wider connotation. But the home ministry stuck to the previous choice of word. Differences have also cropped up over the non-criminalisation of marital rape.

Another issue is the introduction of voyeurism in the bill. The women and child ministry and the home ministry are on the same page but several ministries have demurred.

Voyeurism had no standalone provision in the previous version of the bill. The Verma committee recommended that any act of capturing images or watching a woman engage in sexual acts or when her genitals are exposed should be punishable with imprisonment for one to three years.

But several ministries have opined that the term is vaguely described and will leave a lot of room for misuse.

The sources said the home ministry was now reviewing sections of the bill with recommendations from other ministries and will present the changes to the cabinet next week.

The government, under intense pressure to put the bill up during this session of Parliament, is racing against time to forge a consensus.

Jail for cops

The bill has for the first time introduced a provision for a prison term of one year for police personnel who fail to register FIRs. Police are frequently accused of refusing to register FIRs in order to keep the crime graph under check.

Another measure proposed by the home ministry has made it mandatory for officials to stick to their jurisdiction while sending notices to residents. Officials are often accused of sending notices to people in far-off places and harassing them for not presenting themselves at police stations."