Amid differences of opinion in the cabinet over the proposed anti-rape law, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Tuesday expressed confidence that the government will resolve the issue by Thursday and pass the legislation by 22 March.
There is a sense of urgency in passing the law by 22 March as the bill will replace an ordinance promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee on 3 February and has to be passed within six weeks from that date.
The first half of the budget session ends on 22 March and the house will reconvene on 22 April.
The issue has been in sharp focus after the brutal assault and gang rape of a woman in Delhi on 16 December, 2012. She succumbed to her injuries on 29 December in Singapore.
As differences of opinion prevailed among ministers at a special cabinet meeting called to pass the bill, the government decided to refer the legislation to a Group of Ministers (GoM) to resolve the issue.
‘The GoM meetings will be held soon. We are confident that the issue will be resolved by Thursday. We will pass the bill by 22 March’ Shinde told reporters.
According to informed sources, the points of disagreement over the bill relate to provisions making it gender neutral, lowering the age of juvenile criminals from 18 to 16 besides provisions prescribing punishment for stalking and voyeurism.
While finance minister P Chidambaram wants the bill to be gender neutral by replacing the word ‘rape’ with ‘sexual assault’, women activists have impressed upon the government to retain the word ‘rape’ so that law is seen as specifically for crimes again women.
Also, minister for women and child development Krishna Tirath is against lowering the age of juvenile criminals from 18 to 16, an issue which came into focus after the Delhi gang-rape, in which one of the accused is a juvenile.
Informed sources said the government needed to be careful on defining provisions which made stalking and voyeurism punishable under law as these might be challenged in a court.
The GoM will be headed by Chidambaram and its other members include Shinde, Tirath, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal.
There is a sense of urgency in passing the law by 22 March as the bill will replace an ordinance promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee on 3 February and has to be passed within six weeks from that date.
The first half of the budget session ends on 22 March and the house will reconvene on 22 April.
The issue has been in sharp focus after the brutal assault and gang rape of a woman in Delhi on 16 December, 2012. She succumbed to her injuries on 29 December in Singapore.
As differences of opinion prevailed among ministers at a special cabinet meeting called to pass the bill, the government decided to refer the legislation to a Group of Ministers (GoM) to resolve the issue.
‘The GoM meetings will be held soon. We are confident that the issue will be resolved by Thursday. We will pass the bill by 22 March’ Shinde told reporters.
According to informed sources, the points of disagreement over the bill relate to provisions making it gender neutral, lowering the age of juvenile criminals from 18 to 16 besides provisions prescribing punishment for stalking and voyeurism.
While finance minister P Chidambaram wants the bill to be gender neutral by replacing the word ‘rape’ with ‘sexual assault’, women activists have impressed upon the government to retain the word ‘rape’ so that law is seen as specifically for crimes again women.
Also, minister for women and child development Krishna Tirath is against lowering the age of juvenile criminals from 18 to 16, an issue which came into focus after the Delhi gang-rape, in which one of the accused is a juvenile.
Informed sources said the government needed to be careful on defining provisions which made stalking and voyeurism punishable under law as these might be challenged in a court.
The GoM will be headed by Chidambaram and its other members include Shinde, Tirath, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal.