New Delhi: Close on the heels of the Criminal Law (Amendment) ordinance, 2018, which provides for death penalty for those convicted of raping a girl below 12 years of age, the Union Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry is set to move the Cabinet seeking approval for the same punishment for those guilty of sexually abusing young boys of the same age, two senior government officials familiar with the matter said.
The April 22 ordinance amended Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that deals with rape. It changed Section 42 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, a special legislation enacted in 2012 to address sexual offences committed against those below 18 years of age, to say that newly amended IPC section would apply to children below 12 years of age.
However, while POCSO is gender-neutral, the amended Section 376 mentions the word “woman”. This meant that those guilty of raping boys below the age of 12 years old would not be subject to the death penalty provision.
“It resulted in an anomaly where the same crime committed against a girl and a boy is treated differently. The ordinance that was brought in to punish those raping girls less than 12 years contradicts the spirit of POCSO, which is gender-neutral,” one of the officials cited on condition of anonymity.
In order to correct this anomaly, the WCD ministry has finalised the proposal to amend sections 4, 5 and 6 of the POCSO Act, which will make rape committed against “any child” below 12 punishable with the death penalty.
“We are in the process of sending the proposal to all stakeholder ministries including law for consultation after which we will go to the cabinet,” the official said.
Sections 4, 5 and 6 deal with aggravated penetrative sexual assault on children under 18 years, which is currently punishable with up to 10 years in jail, extendable to life imprisonment, under the POCSO Act.
The ordinance that was promulgated April 22 has to be approved by Parliament within six weeks of reassembling, failing which it will cease to be functional.
“By the time Parliament reconvenes and the ordinance is approved and made into a law, we will try to get the POCSO amendments approved by the Cabinet and make them part of the common law,” the official added.
Responding to a query as to why similar punishment for sexual offences committed against minor boys was not part of the April 22 ordinance, the official replied: “Ordinances are temporary laws and are usually brought in as a response to extraordinary situations that require immediate intervention. In the present case it came in the aftermath of the brutal rape of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.”
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