Kolkata, July 25 -- The West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has returned the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill to the state government for reconsideration, following serious objections raised by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), according to Raj Bhavan.
The legislation, passed by the state Assembly in September 2024, proposes significant amendments to provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including enhanced penalties for rape and removal of judicial discretion in sentencing.
The Centre has raised Constitutional concerns over multiple clauses, citing violations of the principle of proportionality and the restriction of judicial authority.
Among the most contentious changes is the proposal to amend Section 64 of the BNS by increasing the punishment for rape from a minimum of 10 years to either imprisonment for the remainder of a convict's natural life or the death penalty.
The MHA has described this as "excessively harsh and disproportionate," it was learnt.
Additionally, the Bill seeks to delete Section 65 of the BNS, which currently mandates stricter punishment in cases involving victims under the age of 16 and 12. The Centre observed that this deletion could dilute legal safeguards for minor victims and undermine the principle of proportional sentencing.
Section 66 of the Bill has also drawn criticism for proposing a mandatory death sentence in cases where the rape victim dies or is left in a persistent vegetative state. The Centre noted that such a provision removes judicial discretion and contradicts established legal precedent, including Supreme Court rulings that uphold individualised sentencing.
Following these observations, the Governor is learnt to have referred it back to the state government for review.
State officials, however, stated they had not yet received any formal communication from either the Centre or Raj Bhavan and would respond once such an intimation is received.
The Bill was passed unanimously in the Bengal Assembly weeks after the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College on August 9, 2024.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.