Cabinet clears anti-rape Bill, keeps age of consent at 18

Anita Saluja New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Monday approved the anti-rape Bill by agreeing to stick to 18 years as the age of consent for sex instead of 16, informed sources said. The UPA government, which had turned a deaf ear to Women & Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, finally succumbed to the pressure from the Opposition to raise the age of consent from 16 years to 18 years. The Cabinet which met after the All-Party Meeting, approved the changes to be brought in the new legislation, as desired in the meeting. Broadly, apart from lowering of age of consent, the changes include the change of definition of stalking and deletion of few objectionable words. The government rushed through the entire exercise, in a desperate bid to bring the Anti-Rape Bill in the first-half of the Budget Session in order to ensure that the Ordinance does not lapse. As per the changes, consensual sex with a girl under 18 years old will be treated as rape and in case of a minor who is accused of gender crimes, he will have to undergo a probation of one year as punishment for the first offence, but will be charged with rape if he is booked for a second time. The government is all likely to present in parliament on Tuesday the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, to make the anti-rape law more stringent, after evolving a broad political consensus at the all-party meeting here. At the all-party meeting, concern was expressed over clauses relating to voyeurism and stalking. Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) felt that without a clear definition, it could be misused to file false cases against men. For example, Yadav wanted to know from the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, "How could mere watching of a woman be made into a criminal offence?" His argument was that even during match-making, the boy looks at a girl which under the new law becomes an offence. His views were supported by others, including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha The Opposition insisted that stalking can at best cover that "whoever follows a person and contacts, or attempts to contact such person to foster personal interaction repeatedly, despite a clear indication of disinterest by such person, or whoever monitors the use by a person of the internet, email or any other form of electronic communication." Apart from changing the definition of stalking, the government has also agreed for graded punishments for these offences. On first conviction, it will be imprisonment for a term, which shall not be less than one year, but which may extend to three years and on second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment of either description for a term, which shall not be less than three years, but which may extend to seven years. Arun Jaitley also wanted "disrobing" of women to be declared an offence, changing it from "disrobing in Public," on the ground that disrobing anywhere is objectionable. On the clause suggesting punishment to a police officer, if he does not register a complaint lodged by a woman, it was suggested that in case of rape, it should be made mandatory to register the complaint and not on other complaints. Interestingly, Mulayam Singh Yadav, at one point, got furious when he read the word "transfer" in Section 370 (1D), which related to exploitation of women, saying that how could transfers be termed as an offence. It was clarified to him by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj that this was not related to "transfers and postings of officials" but related to human trafficking where women are illegally transported and transferred from one place to another.