A few weeks before Parliament meets, the Centre is planning to bring an ordinance to strengthen rape laws. The home ministry has prepared a draft note that will be laid before the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The Cabinet is expected to take a call on whether an ordinance should be promulgated amending rape laws on the basis of the Justice J.S. Verma panel’s recommendations or if this should wait for Parliament to meet.
On Wednesday, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said his ministry had got the Verma recommendations and will act on them swiftly. Officials said representatives of the MHA, state governments and law enforcement agencies studied the recommendations in the light of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2012 now in Parliament.
The Verma panel’s suggestions on deriliction of duty by public servants and creating a new offence of “breach of command responsibility” for public servants is likely to be rejected, sources said.
The Verma committee suggested a new section be introduced in the IPC to punish public servants who fail in “supervision, command and control” to prevent crimes against women.