The union cabinet despite all it's homilies, platitudes and hollow reassurances in this regard, failed to arrive at a consensus over the contents of the draft Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill-seeking to reintroduce the contentious word "rape" in place of the gender neutral sexual assault that is in vogue at present in the proposed stringent rape law...........
What is even more ironical is the fact that the cabinet failed to resolve it's differences on a day where a 19 year old young woman alleged that she was firstly taken to a secluded place and then repeatedly raped in the same auto that she had boarded along with three other male occupants in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district........
And a 32 year old multi national company executive was brutally assaulted and raped in the company vehicle that she used to moved around in on a daily basis by the cab's driver and a male colleague; FIR's have been registered in both cases but the culprits were yet to be apprehended by the police when reports last came in........
Differences emerged between various cabinet ministers on replacing the present gender neutral sexual assault with the woman specific or centric word "rape" as suggested by the justice Verma committee in it's report and differences also cropped up on the controversial issue of lowering the minimum age of consensual sex to 16 from the present 18 according to informed sources........
The very same sources also confirmed the facts that the law ministry has expressed it's serious apprehensions and misgivings about the home ministry's draft that replaces 'sexual assault' with 'rape', while the ministry of women and child development is proving to be the biggest impediment in lowering the minimum age for consensual sex to 16 from the present 18.........
A consensus has to be reached at any cost given the fact that this bill has to stand both the intense scrutiny of parliament as well as the eagle eye of the judiciary; the draft is likely to undergo major changes and be brought before the cabinet in it's refurbished and revamped avatar in the very near future, these sources added.......
Law minister Ashwani Kumar on his part strongly refuted all reports of differences of opinion amongst the cabinet ministers and attributed the undue delay to the fact that the bill was yet to assume a concrete shape and structure as the same was yet being framed by the union home ministry...........
"The thoroughly revamped and amended bill will soon be placed before the cabinet," the minister went on to say; it may worth be remembering here the fact that the ordinance making the proposed anti rape law far more stringent and potent was promulgated by the president on February 3, 2013.........
Informed sources also opined that though hectic consultations to fine tune the contents of this far reaching bill were on between the mandarins of various ministries, it was a given that the home ministry's informed opinion about the usage of the word 'rape' in place of the term 'sexual assault' would definitely prevail in the ultimate analysis........
What is even more ironical is the fact that the cabinet failed to resolve it's differences on a day where a 19 year old young woman alleged that she was firstly taken to a secluded place and then repeatedly raped in the same auto that she had boarded along with three other male occupants in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district........
And a 32 year old multi national company executive was brutally assaulted and raped in the company vehicle that she used to moved around in on a daily basis by the cab's driver and a male colleague; FIR's have been registered in both cases but the culprits were yet to be apprehended by the police when reports last came in........
Differences emerged between various cabinet ministers on replacing the present gender neutral sexual assault with the woman specific or centric word "rape" as suggested by the justice Verma committee in it's report and differences also cropped up on the controversial issue of lowering the minimum age of consensual sex to 16 from the present 18 according to informed sources........
The very same sources also confirmed the facts that the law ministry has expressed it's serious apprehensions and misgivings about the home ministry's draft that replaces 'sexual assault' with 'rape', while the ministry of women and child development is proving to be the biggest impediment in lowering the minimum age for consensual sex to 16 from the present 18.........
A consensus has to be reached at any cost given the fact that this bill has to stand both the intense scrutiny of parliament as well as the eagle eye of the judiciary; the draft is likely to undergo major changes and be brought before the cabinet in it's refurbished and revamped avatar in the very near future, these sources added.......
Law minister Ashwani Kumar on his part strongly refuted all reports of differences of opinion amongst the cabinet ministers and attributed the undue delay to the fact that the bill was yet to assume a concrete shape and structure as the same was yet being framed by the union home ministry...........
"The thoroughly revamped and amended bill will soon be placed before the cabinet," the minister went on to say; it may worth be remembering here the fact that the ordinance making the proposed anti rape law far more stringent and potent was promulgated by the president on February 3, 2013.........
Informed sources also opined that though hectic consultations to fine tune the contents of this far reaching bill were on between the mandarins of various ministries, it was a given that the home ministry's informed opinion about the usage of the word 'rape' in place of the term 'sexual assault' would definitely prevail in the ultimate analysis........
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