The GoM is also looking into the possibilities of instituting more fast-track courts to try cases of sexual assault.— File Photo
There are possibilities of trying perpetrators of heinous crimes as adults if they are above 15
The Delhi government's attempt at toughening its stance
and treatment of perpetrators of heinous crimes, especially of a sexual
nature and perpetrated by minors, through amendments to the existing
anti-rape law is expected to see the light of day by the end of this
month, it has been reliably learnt.
A Group of
Ministers (GoM), constituted at the orders of Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal and tasked with evolving recommendations aimed at adding more
teeth to the existing anti-rape law and the possibility of trying the
perpetrators of heinous crimes such as rape and murder among others as
adults if they were above the age of 15, is, according to a senior
government official, is ready with a report. The recommendations are
expected to be submitted by latest by next week.
Headed
by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the GoM had originally been
given a fortnight from October 19 to submit its report but was,
according to a senior Delhi government official, allowed an extension
after it began consultations with a team of legal experts formerly
associated with the Justice JS Verma Committee which was constituted in
the wake of the December 16 gang-rape incident and had recommended
several tough amendments to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) afterwards.
A
source close to Mr. Kejriwal said the Chief Minister had already
presided over two preliminary and unofficial presentations related to
the recommendations with its official version currently in the process
of being finalised.
Apart from a 'young team of Delhi-based lawyers who had worked on the JS Verma Committee Report',
The Hindu
has learnt that several legal luminaries including KK Venugopal, TK
Viswanathan, Gopal Subramaniam, Dayan Krishnan and senior functionaries
associated with the National Law University (NLU) and the Delhi
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) are in the process of
vetting the final report.
In addition to examining
amendments to the existing anti-rape law so that the State could try the
perpetrators of heinous crimes over 15, among the GoM's most
significant deliberations is the recommendation of life imprisonment and
death penalty against those accused of such cases and the setting up of
a special police force which could be approached by survivors of sexual
crime if they 'felt dissatisfied with the action taken by the local
police'.
The GoM is also looking into the
possibilities of instituting more fast-track courts to try cases of
sexual assault, the appointment of special public prosecutors in all
rape cases and the institution, within a week, of a Commission of
Inquiry aimed at recommending amendments to laws against crime
perpetrated against women and children a resolution in favour of which
was passed by the Delhi Assembly this August.
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