The Cabinet approved a bill that will make rapists-murderers punishable by death and provides for stringent punishment for offences like acid attacks, voyeurism and stalking women.
The bill also lowered the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years and made ‘rape’ a gender-specific offence under which only men can be charged for it. There is a provision for death sentence if the rape victim dies or is left in a ‘persistent vegetative state’ or if the rapist is a repeat offender.
Rapists will be liable to a minimum jail term of 20 years extendable to imprisonment till the natural life of the convict according to the anti-rape bill that was cleared by a group of ministers and accepted by the Cabinet. The bill will be placed before an all-party meeting on March 18 to build consensus before it is brought to Parliament.
The government has time till March 22 to get Parliament’s approval on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013. The decision comes three months after the Delhi gang-rape brought focus on strong punishment for offences against women.
The Cabinet decision comes after sharp differences over the age of consent and possible misuse of certain provisions forced the government to set up a GoM to thrash out contentious provisions. The GoM finalized the draft on Wednesday.
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