Tamil Nadu to amend two bills to enhance punishment for sexual offences against women

Chennai: Close on the heels of the Anna University sexual assault case, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday introduced two bills, including the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, to increase the quantum of punishment for sexual offences against women.

Chief Minister M K Stalin, who moved the bills in the Assembly, said there was an urgent need to amend the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act to bring harassment of women through digital and electronic within its ambit. “There is also an urgent need to enhance thepunishments for harassment of women so that such deplorable acts will be curtailed and the perpetrators will face severe punishment for their crimes,” Stalin said.

The government also amended the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 suitably.

The amendment to the bill proposes that the penalty for harassment of women which is currently a jail term of three years with a fine of Rs 10,000 will be increased to 5 years in jail and a fine of Rs. 1 lakh. The bill says harassment will include digital and electronic offences, and if the perpetrator is found to be a repeat offender, he will have to undergo 10 years’ imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10 lakh in the second conviction.

In the bill to amend the criminal laws, the minimum term of imprisonment for rape will be increased from 10 to 14 years. In cases where the survivor has been raped repeatedly by a perpetrator, the bill proposes to amend the BNS by doubling the minimum imprisonment from 10 years to 20 years which can go up to life imprisonment.

“…to reinforce the security of the woman, it is proposed to enlarge the scope of the said Principal Act and to prescribe stringent penalties against the offenders -who harass women,” Stalin added.

The introduction of the bills come as the Stalin government faces heat from the opposition on the law and order situation in the state. The sexual assault of a student at Anna University came as a severe embarrassment for the state government.