A post is being circulated on social claiming that the Narendra Modi led BJP Government had passed a new amendment to award capital punishment to every rape convict. This post claims that President Ram Nath Kovind had approved the new amendment passed by the Government of India. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Narendra Modi led BJP Government had passed a new amendment to award capital punishment to every rape convict.
Fact: In August 2018, The Government of India passed The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 by amending the Indian penal code. This amendment by the Indian Government allows courts to award capital punishment to those who are found guilty of raping a woman under twelve years of age. The Government of India had not passed any new amendments to the Criminal Act Law, 2018. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When we searched to check whether the Government of India had passed any such ordinance recently by amending the existing laws, we could not find any such ordinance on the Ministry of Law and Justice website. In August 2018, The Government of India passed The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 by amending few sections of the Indian penal code. This amendment by the Indian Government allows Courts to award capital punishment to those found guilty of raping a girl under twelve years of age. President Ram Nath Kovind had given his consent to this Criminal (Amendment) law act on 11 August 2018.
Let’s look at the changes made by this amendment act.
In 2013, after the Delhi Nirbhaya rape incident, people across the country protested demanding stringent punishment for the rape convicts and had pressed for amendments to the existing law. By amending the then prevalent law, the UPA Government passed The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013’ in the parliament. After the Kathua and Unnao rape incidents in 2018, the Narendra Modi led BJP government had introduced the criminal law amendment ordinance. Later, by amending this ordinance, the Government of India passed ‘The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018’ in Parliament.
‘The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018’ has amended the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. This law amended section 376 of the Indian penal code and made some significant changes to the punishments for raping minor girls. According to this law, Courts can award capital punishment to those found guilty of raping a girl under twelve years of age. The difference in rules between The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 and 2018 can be seen in the table below.
‘The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018’ provides other rape accused a maximum punishment of imprisonment for life. Courts will make the final decision regarding this punishment to rape accused based on the circumstances in a particular case.
To sum it up, the Government of India did not pass any new amendment mandating capital punishment to every rape convict.
