JOIN USThe Karnataka government, it seems, is oblivious of a stringent set of anti-rape amendments to the existing criminal laws carried out by the previous United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre 15 months ago.
How else does one explain the Siddaramaiah government’s sudden legislative move in the State Assembly on Monday to amend the state’s so-called Goonda Act to bring within its ambit sexual assault crimes? The amendment, carried out in the Assembly without a debate, is needless, and it appeared to have been done simply to deflect mounting public pressure on the government in the wake of the rape of a schoolgirl in a prominent private school in Bangalore city. It was done as if to prove that the government was serious in its resolve to respond to the situation in the face of a massive public outcry. Otherwise, the Goonda Act provisions are unnecessary to effectively deal with the rape incident. There are already harsh provisions in the amended Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act.
All that the amended Goonda Act allows the law enforcement agencies concerned is to detain the accused persons for up to 12 months. But after the amendments to IPC and CrPC, almost all types of sexual crimes are cognizable and non-bailable offences. The amendments to these laws were very elaborate and they included under the sexual assault definition voyeurism, unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature and stalking, besides molestation, rape, gang rape, etc. Therefore, the investigating and prosecuting agencies do not require the benefit of a new law to detain the accused in sexual assault cases in custody for as long as they deem it necessary. How stringent the anti-sexual assault laws have become after the amendments to the IPC and CrPC was evident from the fact that courts refused to entertain repeated bail pleas from journalist Tarun Tejpal who is facing charges of rape by one of his junior colleagues.
The needless amendment to the Goonda Act could have been avoided if only the state government had properly deliberated on the issue and studied the existing provisions in law to deal with increasing reports of sexual assault cases. It is doubtful if the investigating and prosecuting agencies in the state will be constrained to turn to the amended Goonda Act to deal with the Bangalore schoolgirl rape case. What is, however, necessary is a quick trial of rape cases. The more the trial process is prolonged, the better are the chances of the courts considering grant of bail on one or the other grounds.