Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday introduced two bills in the Assembly to increase the punishment for sexual offences against women and children, reported The Hindu.
One of the bills proposes amendments to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, to prescribe stricter punishments and more stringent bail conditions.
“The punishment for criminals who indulge in such heinous crimes should remain a deterrent for those who tend to commit such crimes in future,” Stalin said, according to The New Indian Express.
The other bill seeks to amend the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act, 1998, to address harassment through digital platforms. “There is an urgent need to amend the said Act in order to bring different types of harassment inflicted to women including those through digital and electronic means also within the ambit of the said Act,” the bill said.
Currently, the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act says that the punishment for harassing women, including through electronic means, is imprisonment for up to three years and a fine of up to Rs 10,000. If the amendment is passed, the punishment will go up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
Repeat offenders may face a punishment of up to ten years’ imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 10 lakh, according to The New Indian Express.
The move comes at a time when Opposition parties in the state have been attacking Stalin’s government for the alleged sexual assault of a student on the campus of Chennai’s Anna University.
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