Solicitor-general of India Gopal Subramaniam will head the drafting committee formed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council to prepare the Communal and Sectarian Violence Bill, 2010 by November this year.
Having rejected the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, prepared by the government last month, the NAC has decided to broaden the scope of the legislation by changing its nomenclature to Communal and Sectarian Violence Bill, 2010 keeping in mind the concerns of the civil society groups.
The NAC has also set a timeline for the drafting committee and has asked it to work out the draft bill by November this year. Besides well-known Supreme Court lawyers like Maja Daruwala and Najmi Waziri, other members of the drafting panel include social activist Teesta Setalwad and lawyers Usha Ramanathan and Vrinda Grover.
The NAC has also constituted an advisory group, including activist like Asgar Ali Engineer, Shabnam Hashmi, legal experts like H.S. Phoolka, Justice Hosbet Suresh, academicians like Sukhdeo Thorat, Upendra Baxi, Roop Rekha Verma and minority community leaders like John Dayal and Sister Mary Scaria. According to sources, key elements of the draft bill will be shifting from empowering the state to seeking action and accountability of public officials and setting up of an independent national authority to ensure effective compliance of the law, without disturbing the federal structure.
The draft bill would look into the need to specifically define and include new crimes/offences including sexual assault, enforced disappearances, torture, long-lasting social and economic boycott, and genocide, among others.
The draft bill would propose amendments in CrPC and Indian Evidence Act to meet extraordinary circumstance of communal and sectarian violence to protect victims’ rights, said sources. The draft bill would also define communal and sectarian violence to cover both isolated incidents and mass crimes against people on the basis of religion, caste, linguistic and other identities.