Amnesty Worldwide on Tuesday condemned the not too long ago handed the Indian state of West Bengal’s Aprajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, which introduces the demise penalty for rape circumstances that outcome within the sufferer’s demise or depart them in a vegetative state. The invoice, handed unanimously by the West Bengal Legislative Meeting on September 3, 2024, acquired help from each the ruling Trinamool Congress social gathering and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP).
The invoice’s passage comes within the wake of the rape and homicide of a trainee physician at R.G. Kar Medical Faculty and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal on August 9, 2024, an incident that triggered widespread protests throughout India. The West Bengal authorities launched the invoice in response to the general public outcry, aiming to impose stricter penalties for sexual offences and expedite the justice course of.
The invoice introduces vital amendments to the present Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and different associated laws governing sexual offences in India. Probably the most notable change is the imposition of the demise penalty for rape circumstances that outcome within the sufferer’s demise or depart them in a vegetative state. The latest case of the August 9 rape and homicide in Kolkata would fall below this new provision. Equally, previous rape circumstances that shook the nation, akin to that of Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse who was sexually assaulted in 1973 and remained in a vegetative state for over 41 years till her 2015 demise, would even be categorised below this criterion.
Moreover, the invoice drastically shortens the timelines for processing sexual offences, requiring investigations to be accomplished inside 21 days and trials inside 30 days, in comparison with the two-month interval allowed below the BNS, aiming to make sure swifter justice.
Whereas the West Bengal authorities hails the Aprajita Invoice as a “model and historic” regulation, human rights organizations like Amnesty Worldwide have raised critical issues. “The demise penalty isn’t the answer, nor wouldn’t it supply a ‘fast repair’ to forestall violence towards girls,” stated Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board at Amnesty Worldwide. He identified that neither the Justice Verma Committee, fashioned in 2012 to reform India’s legal guidelines on sexual violence, nor the Law Commission of India have supported the demise penalty for such crimes.
Amnesty Worldwide harassed that systemic reforms, reasonably than harsher punishments, are vital to handle the foundation causes of sexual violence. “What is definitely wanted is far-reaching procedural and institutional reform that offers with the foundation causes of crime and places emphasis on its prevention,” Patel added, urging the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the Kolkata case with out resorting to capital punishment.
The group reiterated its long-standing place towards the demise penalty, calling it a violation of the right to life as acknowledged by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
