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Anti-rape Bill delayed again, referred to GoM

[email protected] (PTI)
March 12, 2013
New Delhi, Mar 12: A bill which seeks to make punishment for crime against women more stringent was today referred to a Group of Ministers for further consultations after differences erupted in the meeting of the Union Cabinet on certain provisions, including lowering the age of consensual sex to 16 years.

anti-rapeSources said the hour-long special Cabinet meeting convened to clear the bill could not arrive at an agreement, following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred it to a GoM.

The proposed GoM is likely to have Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, sources said.

While there was unanimity in the Cabinet to pass the Bill, certain issues remained unresolved.

The bill proposes that the age of consent be lowered from 18 to 16. The issue had led to lengthy inter-ministry consultations with some arguing that it should not be reduced. The Women and Child Development Ministry had opposed the move.

Sexual intercourse under the age of consent is considered statutory rape.

Sources also said some senior ministers were not able to agree on issues such as whether the word "rape" - which is more gender specific- should replace "sexual assault" - which is gender neutral - in the proposal, and how to define voyeurism and stalking, which the bill identifies as criminal offences. The two were for the first time defined as criminal offsenses in the ordinance.

Some ministers expressed concern about not enough safeguards against false evidence and testimony.

The bill retains a key provision of the ordinance under which if rape leads to death of the victim or leaves her in a vegetative state, it can also attract death penalty. The minimum punishment is 20 years in jail which may extend upto the "natural life" of the convict.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 will replace the February 3 Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance.

The Ordinance will lapse on April 4 - six weeks from February 21 when the Budget session was convened.

Since the ordinance is the 'law of the land' as of today, cases of rape and similar crimes will continue to be registered under its provisions till the President signs the new bill to make it into law.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2012 introduced in the Lok Sabha in December last will be scrapped once the new bill is introduced in Parliament, most likely later this week.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Ghaziabad, Jul 28: Days ahead of Eid-ul-Adha, Nand Kishore Gurjar, a BJP MLA from Loni assembly constituency in Ghaziabad, has stoked controversy as he asked people celebrating the festival to "sacrifice their children instead of animals" on the occasion. He also claimed that "meat spreads coronavirus" so people should not be allowed to sacrifice innocent animals.

"People who want to sacrifice on Eid should sacrifice their children. I will not let people consume meat and alcohol in Loni. We will not let people sacrifice innocent animals because meat spreads coronavirus," the BJP legislator said while speaking to reporters.

"The way people have followed the guidelines of the government by not offering prayers and namaz at temples and mosques to contain COVID-19, in the same way, they must not give the sacrifice of animals on this Eid," he added.

"Earlier, sacrifices of animals used to be done in Sanatan Dharam as well. However, now coconut is offered instead. I request the Muslim brothers not to give 'qurbani' of animals. We will stop those who will perform the ritual animal sacrifice. We will not let this happen in Loni," he said.

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Agencies
May 17,2020

New Delhi, May 17: With the highest-ever spike of close to 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 count in India has crossed 90,000 on Sunday.

With an increase of 4,987 COVID-19 cases being reported in the last 24 hours, the count has reached 90,927, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total number of active cases in the country stands at 53,946 today, while 2,872 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far, with one patient having migrated. 120 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

However, on the positive side, close to 4,000 patients have also been cured and discharged in the past 24 hours, taking the tally of cured patients to 34,108.

With 30,706 confirmed cases, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected by the infection in the country.

It is followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, with 10,988 and 10,585 cases, respectively.
The national capital, with 9,333 cases, is also one of the regions which is badly affected by the infection.

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News Network
July 19,2020

New Delhi, Jul 19: With the highest single-day spike of 38,902 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's total COVID-19 tally on Sunday reached 10,77,618, informed the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday.

The death toll has gone up to 26,816 with 543 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry said the total number of cases includes 3,73,379 active cases and 6,77,423 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 3,00,937 cases reported until Saturday.
Meanwhile, as per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,34,33,742 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 18, of these 3,61,024 samples were tested yesterday.

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