What is the Aparajita Bill?
On September 3 2024, less than a month after the horrific rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor at the State-run RG Kar hospital that shocked the nation, the Government of West Bengal unanimously passed a Bill titled ‘Aparajita Woman and Child Bill (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill 2024‘ in the State Legislative Assembly. In a two-day special session of the Assembly, the Bill was passed with a voice vote in a rare show of harmony where both the ruling party and the chief opposition BJP supported it. The Aparajita Bill concerns itself with strengthening existing anti-rape provisions and thereby ensuring women’s safety.
What this Bill aims to achieve?
As law and order is a subject that falls under the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, both the State and the Centre are entitled to make laws on the same. However, in case of contradiction, the laws framed by the Central Government prevail over that of the State Government.
Therefore, although the newly enacted Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, had anti-rape provisions along with the Protection of Children From Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012 which focuses on sexual offences against children, the Aparajita Bill aims to achieve speedy investigation and trial along with stringent punishment for convicted offenders. By ensuring quicker dispensation of justice and capital punishment to criminals of sexual assault, the Bill seeks to improve women’s safety and security prevalent in the State.
What are the provisions of the Aparajita Bill?
The Aparajita Bill proposes amendments to the existing anti-rape laws of the country and suggests key changes that are highlighted below:
● It recommends the death penalty and fine for convicted offenders in cases where the action of the offender has led the victim to death or in a vegetative state.
● It mandates a fine and life sentence or death sentence for criminals convicted of rape and gang rape.
● It proposes to bring down the time of investigation to 21 days from the time of filing the First Information Report (FIR) and permit a 15-day extension under special circumstances.
● It recommends completion of the trial within 30 days.
● It categorises the publication of the court proceedings relating to any such cases without permission as an offence to be punished by imprisonment for three to five years along with a fine.
● The Bill seeks to create a Special Aparajita Task Force at the district level headed by a deputy superintendent of the police to handle these serious cases of sexual assault.
What necessitated it in the first place?
On August 9, a woman trainee doctor was undergoing 36 hours of duty in the RG Kar Hospital when she was brutally raped and murdered in the hospital building. The horrific details that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, which is still under investigation, shocked the citizens and led to nationwide protests and strikes by doctors who demanded justice as well as better workplace safety. At the same time, the demand for justice rocked the nation.
In the State of West Bengal, it spiralled into a demand for the resignation of the Chief Minister as the Government was accused of shielding the perpetrators and tampering with the evidence. The protest, in most cases, took a violent turn, with the state apparatus having to resort to the use of tear gas, lathi charges and other violent means to control the protesters. In the wake of such intensified protest movements, the ruling Government decided to table a bill advocating stricter punishments for convicted rapists and speedy probe in cases of sexual harassment by conducting a special two-day session.
How is it different from the existing anti-rape laws framed by the Centre?
While the newly enacted Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023 mandates a fine and imprisonment of minimum ten years, which may extend to a life sentence, the Aparajita Bill recommends a life sentence along with fine for offenders convicted of rape. The Aparajita Bill proposes the death penalty along with fine as punishment for rapists whose actions have led to the death of the victim or resulted in the victim being transitioned to a vegetative State, besides offering a life sentence along with a hefty fine for offences of gangrape.
In contrast, BNS mandates imprisonment of 20 years, which can be extended to a life sentence as punishment for convicted criminals charged with gang rape or rape causing the death of the victim or leading the victim to a vegetative state. Moreover, while the duration of investigation and trial at present is stretched up to two months from the filing of the FIR in each case, the concerned Bill tries to bring it down to 21 days and one month, respectively.
What are the other bills concerning women’s safety in the country?
Earlier, states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra had made similar attempts in seeking the death penalty for offences of rape and gang rape. Andhra Pradesh had passed the Disha Bill in 2019 in the wake of the gangrape and murder of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad. The Bill recommended capital punishment for serious offences against women and proposed to expedite trials within 21 days, besides having special courts for trying cases against women and children.
Following Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra Government passed the Maharashtra Shakti Bill in 2020, which sought the death penalty for offences like rape and gang rape along with severe acid attacks against women, recommending faster dispensation of justice in such cases. However, both bills await presidential assent for their enactment.
What is the controversy centring it?
While the Bill tries to address the loopholes in the existing anti-rape laws framed by the Centre, it has certain provisions which are problematic. The Aparajita bill restricts press freedom as it prescribes penalising printing and publication of Court proceedings without authorisation with a punishment of imprisonment ranging from three to five years along with a fine.
Although it claims that such a measure is recommended to better protect the identity and dignity of the victims involved in such cases, a section of critics and media persons are not happy with the provision as it limits the ability of the press to hold the Government accountable in such cases. The concern of the critics holds merit, especially in the context of the present RG Kar case, where the media has been instrumental in ensuring that the probe continues despite significant tampering of evidence in the initial stages.
Can it be a potential deterrent?
The Aparajita bill reinvigorates the age-old debate on the death penalty and whether capital punishment acts as a deterrent to serious crimes and brings to mind the Nirbhaya Gangrape and Murder Case Judgement of 2012, which had divided the jury over the issue. While some of the judges of the five-member bench were against ordering the death penalty, a section of the bench agreed to it, justifying that the Supreme Court validates the death penalty in ‘the rarest of the rare cases’, which the Nirbhaya Case clearly qualifies to be.
Even after a decade after the judgment, the rising cases of violence against women confirm that stricter laws have failed to achieve what it was set down to do. Considering the systemic nature of the violence, which is deeply entrenched within the patriarchal society, harsher punishments and stricter law enforcement systems alone prove to be an inefficient deterrent. Therefore, the success of the Aparajita Bill remains wishful thinking until the society as a collective undergoes some serious reflection and introspection into its conduct and tries to offer redemption on its own.
