Ram Nath Kovind approved the 2019 state legislation in June.
Ram Nath Kovind approved the 2019 state legislation in June.
Former President Ram Nath Kovind in June approved a 2019 law passed by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on the advice of the Union Home Ministry, which makes dowry harassment, rioting and use of obscene words criminal offenses in the state. In a compoundable offence, the parties involved can settle while the matter is pending in court.
The Malimath Committee constituted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2000 also favored making Section 498A (dowry harassment) of the IPC a bailable and compoundable offence.
The Criminal Law (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced by the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on July 24, 2019, a few months before the government fell in 2020.
People familiar with the matter said the former President had given his assent to the bill on June 28. The present MP government did not withdraw the bill after coming to power. Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains and State Home Minister Narottam Mishra did not answer questions. Hindu,
The Union Home Ministry scrutinizes the bills passed by the state legislatures which may be contrary to the central laws before obtaining the assent of the President to become laws. As per the rules, the President has to go along with the advice given by the Council of Ministers, in this case represented by the Ministry of Home Affairs, before a state law is approved or rejected.
The MP Bill proposed amendments to several sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
When the Bill was introduced in the Assembly, the Statement of Objects and Reasons stated that it proposes to make the offense compoundable under Section 498A of the IPC as the complaint in such offenses is the result of matrimonial dispute. “Fir in a Moment” [First Information Report] gets registered. After taking cognizance of such offense on many occasions, the woman wants to settle in such offense but due to lack of provision, she has to go a long way to the High Court, which hinders the settlement of matrimonial dispute.
It further said that the Madhya Pradesh Amendment Act of 1999 made sections 147 IPC, (rioting) 294 IPC (obscene song or words in a public place) and 506 IPC (criminal intimidation) compoundable, but in 2009, the central government amended CrPC. amended. Such offenses again became non-compoundable, leading to a backlog of cases in court.
“The result is that after compounding the main offences, the cases are pending for adjudication in the court unnecessarily for a long time… Therefore, to re-amend section 320 of CrPC, 1973 to make the above cases compoundable. desirable,” it said.
Both IPC and CrPC come under the Concurrent List which allows state governments to amend them.
The Bill states that certain provisions of the CrPC, 1973 mandate the physical presence of an accused (undertrial prisoner) or his counsel for recording evidence or other proceedings. It said that due to paucity of police personnel, at times the accused are not produced before the court for the scheduled hearing. “Consequently, the case gets adjourned. Due to the advancement of information technology, it is desirable that the statements of witnesses and examination of the accused and other proceedings be done alternatively through audio-video electronic means and not their physical appearance in court.” Instead of mandatory provision of attendance,” it said.
The Bill states that this facility will be effective in dealing with the problem of shortage of police officers and will also be effective for speedy trial of cases. Therefore, suitable amendments were proposed in sections 273, 278, 281, 291, 305, 317 and 353 of CrPC.