The Rajya Sabha on December 21 passed the Maritime Anti-Piracy Bill 2019, two days after the Lok Sabha cleared it.
- External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who introduced the bill, said the Bill would fulfil all the expectations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which India is a signatory to, for cooperation and repression of piracy in high seas.
- Tthe Centre has dropped the provision for trial in absentia through amendments brought in the Lok Sabha.
- The Bill also addresses the issue of death penalty “as an exceptional case”.
Why the bill was required?
- Prior to the passage of this bill, India did not have a domestic anti-piracy law on the books. The country used sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to prosecute those accused of piracy. However, this came with jurisdictional problems as those codes only applied to India’s territorial waters that extend only 12 nautical miles from India’s coast.
- India also signed on to the UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas (UNCLOS) in 1995 which has some provisions for anti-piracy. An earlier effort to pass a domestic law to combat piracy during 2012 did not come to fruition.
Key provision of bill
- The Bill defines piracy as any illegal act of violence, detention, or destruction committed against a ship, aircraft, any person or property, for private purposes, by the crew or passengers of a private ship or aircraft.
- It provides an effective legal instrument to combat piracy, not only in territorial waters (a distance of 12 nautical miles from the baseline) and the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) but also on the high seas — beyond the EEZ which is 200 nautical miles from the country’s coastline.
- The death penalty is not a mandatory clause now. Punishments would include imprisonment for life or death.
- Imprisonment may extend to imprisonment for life, or fine, or both. Death or imprisonment for life would be pronounced if the act or attempt of piracy includes attempted murder, or causes death.
- Impose up to 10 years of imprisonment, or fine, or both for attempting to commit or aid piracy; up to 14 years, or fine, or both for participating, organising or directing others to commit piracy.
- Only authorised personnel may carry out arrest and seizure which include officers and sailors assigned to warships or military aircraft of Indian Navy, or officers and enrolled persons of Coast Guard, officers of the central or state government authorised for any ship or aircraft.
- Authorised personnel may carry out arrest and seizure on grounds of suspicion.
- The territorial jurisdiction of designated courts will be specified by the Centre after consulting with the Chief Justice of India.
