Criminal law amendment act, 2018
Amendments mean a change any minor major addition or removal of any rules, numbers, figures, sections, or articles in any act is known as an amendment in criminal law we have the latest amendment in 2018. Which was enacted on 11th August 2018 and came into force on the 21st day of April 2018 As the offences against women especially rape cases with women under the age of 12 and 16 years, for example Kathua rape case. We needed an amendment in the act which added strict provisions and punishments in the act, especially for minor girls. “An act further to amend the Indian penal code 1860, Indian evidence act 1872, the Code of criminal procedure 1973 and Protection of Children from sexual offences act, 2012.” Be it enacted by parliament in the 69th year of the Republic of India. Introduction Criminal law is the law which is made to punish the offenders ( culprits ) for the offences that they have committed. It provides rules regarding legal and illegal things which is allowed or which are not allowed. In general, regarding criminal law, we have two acts Indian penal code, 1860 and, code of criminal procedure, 1973 Indian penal code 1860 is a substantive law which only says which action is an offence and what should be the punishment for that crime. Code of criminal procedure, 1973 as the name suggests is a procedural law and it provides the procedure through which the offenders get published. Again in support of these laws we have the Law of Evidence, without which there will be much delay in trial and harm to the general public and the litigants will have to face the obstructions and bear more costs. The object of the law of evidence is to restrict the investigations made by the court within the limits of general convenience. If such restrictions are not, put no suit can be decided even if its trial takes place for a long time. The law of Evidence is for judicial behaviour like the reasoning for logic. Again we will talk about the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act,2012 The amendment proposes to enhance punishment for the rape of a child, who is below the age of 18 years, divided into three as: up to 12 years, up to 16 years, 16 to 18 years. This bill has replaced the criminal law (amendment) ordinance. Background As an office against women especially rape cases with women under the age of 12 or 16 years, for example, the Kathua rape case. We needed amendments in the act which added provisions and punishments in the act is especially for minor girls. Kathua rape case,2018: The case relates to the brutal rape and murder of an 8-year girl in Kathua village back in 2018. In June 2019 special court at Pathankot sentenced three men to life imprisonment in this case. The court has also sentenced three police officers to 5-year of imprisonment for causing distraction of evidence. the supreme court has transferred the trial of the case from Kathua to Pathankot in Punjab given the obstruction of justice by the lawyers who have protested against the police arresting the accused person justice. Justice J.B. Pardiwala held that the respondent accused was not a juvenile at the time of the commission of the offence and should be tried the way other accused persons were tried by the law. The supreme court bench also ruled that the medical expert estimate regarding the age of the accused is not a statutory substitute for proof but is only an opinion. Amendments under the Indian penal code 1860 1. Amendment under section 166A (Added section376AB,376DA,376DB) 166A of the code deals with the duties of a public servant conducting an investigation. There are three amendment acts in the section but the amendment act is made in clause c which says a public servant who fails to record any information given to him under subsection 1 of section 154 of the criminal procedure code about cognizable. the offence is punishable under section Section 326A Section 326B Section 354B Section 370 Section 370A Section 376 Section 376A Section 376AB Section 376B Section 376C Section 376D Section 376DA Section 376DB Section 376E Section 509 2. Under section 228A This section is inserted in the Indian penal code by criminal law amendment act,1983 to prevent social victimization and ostracism of victims of sex crimes. It prohibits the printing and publication of the Identity of victims of rape and other sexual crimes. Subsection 1 of this section, section 376AB, section 376 DA, and section 376 DB were added with sections 376A, 376B, and section 376C. 3. An amendment under section 376 This section deals with offences of after amendment subsection 1 says whoever except in the cases provided for in sub–section 2 (which is rape committed by a police officer), commits rape shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than 10 years but which may extend to imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine.(Imprisonment of10years to life imprisonment+ fine) Clause I of subsection 2 is omitted after the amendment which punishes, rape committed by a man on a woman when she is under 16 years of age The amendment included subsection 3: whoever commits rape on a woman under 16 years of age shall be punished with, rigorous imprisonment for not less than 20 years which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and shall also be liable to fine. provided further that the fine imposed under the subsection shall be paid to the victim. 4. Insertion of new section 376 DA and section 376 DB where a woman under 16 years of age is raped by one hour more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of those persons will be deemed to have committed the…