NEW DELHI: As the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs reviewing the three Bills seeking to replace the existing criminal laws set to meet on Monday, it is likely to adopt the draft bill despite objections from members of the opposition parties, according to sources.
Fuelling speculations, home minister Amit Shah asserted last week that the three new bills will be passed by Parliament soon. Though the panel met last week, it deferred the adoption of the draft report after protests from the Opposition seeking more time and consultations to finalise it. Sources familiar with the developments told this newspaper that they have submitted dissent notes to the committee suggesting changes in the bills.
However, the panel headed by BJP MP Brij Lal may adopt one of the important recommendations made by the panel to criminalise non-consensual sexual activities involving men, women, or transpersons, as well as acts of bestiality under section 377 of the IPC. Another source told this paper that the majority view of the panel cutting across party lines was to retain section 377 to criminalize non-consensual “unnatural offenses”.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, the proposed replacement for the IPC has completely removed IPC Section 377 which was read down by the Supreme Court in 2018, he pointed out. Most of the members were of the view that the absence of this section in the BNS can leave male or female victims of sexual assault without any other legal remedy. Though the SC in a judgment in 2018 ruled that consensual gay sex is not a crime, certain provisions of the law Section 377 (“unnatural offenses”) remained applicable in the IPC.