Why in the News?
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on December 13, 2019 passed the Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, 2019 (Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2019). The bill was passed seeing the huge anti protests across the country against the rising the rape cases. The bill has been named after Disha-the name given to a veterinarian who was raped, murdered and burnt in Hyderabad on November 27, 2019. She was allegedly abducted by four men who offered to help her fix her bike’s flat tyre.
What are the provisions of the bill?
The bill provides for awarding death sentence for offences of rape and gangrape and expediting trials of such cases to within 21 days.
The bill envisages the completion of investigation in 7 days and trial in 14 working days, where there is adequate conclusive evidence, and reducing the total judgment time to 21 days from the existing four months.
The bill prescribes life imprisonment for other sexual offences against children and includes Section 354 F and 354 G in IPC.
A new section 354 E will be added in Indian Penal Code, 1860. The new section states two years imprisonment for the first conviction and four years for second and subsequent convictions in cases of harassment of women through social or digital media.
The state government will establish, operate and maintain a register in electronic form, to be called the ‘Women & Children Offenders Registry’ and it will be made public and will be available to law enforcement agencies.
How is it different from Nirbhaya Act, 2013 ?
The Nirbhaya Act, 2013 and Criminal Amendment Act, 2018 state that judgement should be completed within 4 months (two months of investigation period and two months of trial period) whereas in Disha bill, it is only 21 days. (Source: Indian Express)
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