Even though parliamentarians have sought special session of Parliament to pass tough laws against rape cases, the political class appears to have shown least interest when bills came before them to amend existing laws.
Amid the din over Constitution amendment bill to allow reservation in promotion for SCs/STs, the Lok Sabha could not discuss the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 4. “The blame lies with the government, as they circulate the draft of the bill the night before it’s taken up for discussion in the House giving us hardly any time for study,” said Mr Vijay Bahadur Singh, LS MP of the BSP.
However, the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old woman, who later died, appear to have woken up the parliamentarians of their responsibilities, as they now clamour for death punishment and special session of the Parliament.
Even after the law commission drafted the Sexual Offences (Special Courts) Bill, 2003, nothing appears to have been done to execute the proposals. Though the Delhi government went on an overdrive to set up fast-track courts after the furore over the gangrape, the legislative framework for this is still missing. “Death following rape will automatically invite IPC 302, with capital punishment as an option. What we need is speedy justice delivery system. We can not deter perpetrators of the crime if they can walk free because of inherent flaws in the justice delivery system,” added Mr Singh.
Ironically, the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, which seeks to amend laws dealing with rape offences is silent on needs for special courts to deal with cases in a time-bound manner. The apathy of the political class could also be gauged from the fact, that the Workplace (Preve-ntion, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2010 and the Indecent Represent-ation of Women (Prohibi-tion) are still awaiting discussion in the Parliament, where ruckus over government’s decision in allowing FDI in multi-brand retail and bill for promotion in jobs for SCs/STs washed out most of the time in the Winter Session.