M A I N   N E W S

How can lawbreakers make anti-rape laws: Verma panel
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, January 24
How can a Parliament comprising persons with criminal record pass an effective criminal law amendment reform? The Justice JS Verma committee has asked the government this vital question in its report on the anti-rape law.

As many as 17 per cent MPs of the current Lok Sabha face heinous offence charges, including crimes against women; two MPs --- Semmalai S (AIADMK) and Adhikari Suvendu (TMC) --- have stated on oath to the Election Commission that they have been charged with cruelty (IPC 498 A) and use of force on a woman with the intent of outraging her modesty (354 IPC), respectively. In 2009 LS polls, political parties had fielded six candidates who admitted to charges of rape and 34 who admitted to various crimes against women like molestation.

Analysing the trend of unabated fielding of tainted candidates by political parties, the Verma committee has now demanded accountability of politicians and sought a comprehensive law on the internal working of political parties which should filter candidates before fielding them. The panel has mooted amendments to the current Representation of People’s Act 1951 to say that a candidate would be disqualified from election contest once a court takes cognisance of his crime and not essentially once he is convicted for a serious offence (the case presently).

“Barring people with criminal records from entering politics would be the easiest way to cleanse lawmaking bodies of the present day malady. A Parliament which consists of people with criminal records is unlikely to pass any effective Criminal Law Amendment reform because there is a distinct conflict of interest. We hope MPs chargesheeted for criminal offences of a heinous nature demit offices. We can only appeal,” the committee has said.

To cleanse the system, it has recommended the adoption of UK Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act-2000 in India and laid down its implementation to enforce the following principles — criteria for admission to a political party; ensuring its internal democracy and code of conduct and refusal by parties to field candidates with criminal history.

In the absence of these checks, tainted candidates are blatantly entering the legislatures and Parliament. Political parties fielded 27 candidates charged with rape in different Assembly elections during the past five years; six of them won. Three belong to the Samajwadi Party; one each to the BSP; the BJP and the TDP. Over the past 10 years, 20% people elected to various state assemblies and Lok Sabha are such who have been either charged with or convicted for heinous offences, including rape. The Verma panel further discovered another anomaly in the current laws. Though the RP Act requires MPs/MLAs to give affidavits to the EC declaring charges framed against them in heinous offences, it doesn’t give EC the power to verify these affidavits. On receipt of false information, a returning officer is allowed to simply file a complaint to the magistrate for prosecuting the MP/MLA under Section 125 A of the RP Act which prescribes a punishment.

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AFSPA comment: Committee went beyond its brief
Arun Joshi/TNS

Many point out that the gang-rape of women in Kunonposhpora in 1991 requires full investigation. In this case, the civil administration is as much guilty as the Army, they say. The case was not properly investigated into, and the village in northwest Kashmir has been living with a stigma for the past 22 years.

The panel has failed to draw any line between the false charges and the actual incidents. It has painted all men in uniform, who enjoy immunity under AFSPA, with the same brush. It is a known fact that certain things do go wrong in conflict zones, and it happens in Jammu and Kashmir, too.

But to say: “There is an imminent need to review the continuance of the AFSPA and AFSPA-like legal protocols in internal conflict areas as soon as possible,” for “this is necessary for determining the propriety of resorting to this legislation in the area(s) concerned” is going too far. It will give a boost to all those who have been after the Army in Jammu and Kashmir and want AFSPA scrapped, sources say.

According to records with the Army, there were more than 1,400 complaints of excesses and all of these were investigated into or are still under investigation. The Army has punished 104 of its men, some of them held guilty of rape, including a Major. They were dismissed from the service and also sentenced to rigorous imprisonment ranging from seven to 10 years.

Since 2008, there has not been a single case of rape charge against any of the soldiers posted in Jammu and Kashmir. The last one was in 2007, in which two Army personnel were dismissed from the service and awarded rigorous imprisonment of 10 years.

Contrast it with the alleged gang rape of Rukiya Bano of Gujjar Dhar in Kulgam area in July 2011 in which she had alleged that she was criminally assaulted by six to seven soldiers. However, a detailed investigation showed nothing had happened and the charge was false.

“Such charges are part of the misinformation campaign launched against the security forces,” an Army officer told The Tribune.

Those having knowledge about AFSPA know that it grants immunity to the security forces only in cases of excesses and killings taking place during counter-insurgency operations.

As it is happening in the case of three soldiers who staged a fake encounter in Machail in north Kashmir and killed three civilians, passing them as terrorists who had come from across the Line of Control. The Army has not cooperated in the case of killing of four young boys who were playing cricket in a village in Kupwara and the matter is hanging fire since 2004. The judge who was appointed to look into the matter has since retired.

There are several other charges of murders, forced disappearances and tortures against the security forces, where AFSPA is becoming a mountain-sized hurdle in punishing the guilty under the law of the land.

THE COMMENT

There is an imminent need to review the continuance of AFSPA and AFSPA-like legal protocols in internal conflict areas as soon as possible.

THE SITUATION

• AFSPA doesn’t provide cover to the men in uniform found guilty of committing rapes
• The Army has punished 104 of its men, some of them held guilty of rape, including a Major
• Since 2008, there has not been a single case of rape charge against any of the soldiers posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
• However, there are cases of murder, forced disappearances and torture against the security forces, where AFSPA is becoming a hurdle in punishing the guilty