JOIN USA Group of Ministers (GoM), constituted by the prime minister on Tuesday to iron out differences among the ministries on the draft Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, failed to muster consensus despite holding a two-hour meeting on the three contentious issues.
The law ministry’s reservation on retaining the word “rape” instead of the gender-neutral “sexual assault,” legal age for consensual sex and inserting cushion to avoid misuse of proposed offences like stalking and voyeurism were discussed threadbare at the GoM headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Other members of the GoM are Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath and External Affairs Minister Shalman Khurshid. The meeting, which took place in the finance ministry, began at 4 pm and went on till about 6 pm, to deliberate on the draft legislation which has to replace the ordinance issued on February 3.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to refer the Bill to the GoM after the Cabinet, in its special meeting on Tuesday, could not reach consensus following divergent views of stakeholders on some portions of the Bill. “Now we have completed the work substantially. I think we will require another hour or so,” Chidambaram told reporters. The GoM will meet again on Wednesday evening. Chidambaram assured that the job will be done so that the Bill is refered to the Cabinet for discussion the following day.
“Sections that we have covered, all points of view have been taken into account and reconciled and the final version of the clause has emerged and we can do that for the remaining sections also and tomorrow the work will be complete,” he said.