The National Advisory Council hopes to finalise the draft of Communal and Sectarian Violence Bill, 2010, and bring it out for public scrutiny shortly.
Sources in the NAC said they have resolved the differences within the drafting committee and the final draft would have provisions to fix accountability of public officials at all levels and provide relief and rehabilitation of the victims in the event of a communal violence incident.
Recently, two members of the NAC drafting committee, Supreme Court lawyers Vrinda Grover and Usha Ramanathan, had disassociated from the panel citing differences over inclusion of these two provisions. They had said the draft legislation being prepared by the drafting committee did not reflect their concerns.
Both Ms Grover and Mr Ramanathan had said any such draft would be meaningless if it did not address these issues. They had also said that the NAC draft bill was focusing too much on creation of a national level authority to look into the complaints of communal violence incidents, rather than key legal provisions.
Sources said the deadline for preparing the final draft had been stretched from the original one in November 2010 to February 2011, which too has lapsed, owing to the complex nature of the issue. Sources said the draft bill is being vetted by additional solicitor general Indira Jaising and would soon be approved by the NAC chairperson Sonia Gandhi before it is made public.
“Yes, there has been some delay. But we don’t want to rush with this key legislation,” said an NAC member.