New Tamil Nadu Bill seeks to protect victims of sexual crimes

Tamil Nadu Bill seeks to legally restrain harassers from contacting women, increase punishment for offenses, and protect victims.

A Bill to amend the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women (Amendment) Act, 1998, which was tabled in the Assembly by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday, sought to legally restrain persons accused of harassing women from contacting them.

The Bill sought to incorporate Section 7 C into the Act to obtain a “protection order”. The executive magistrate could pass such a “protection order prohibiting the accused from attempting to communicate with the aggrieved person in any form, whatsoever, including personal or oral or written or electronic or telephonic contact or through parties”.

The executive magistrate can pass such an order on an application from the aggrieved person, or otherwise, after obtaining the report of the investigation officer and after giving the accused an opportunity of being heard, and on being prima facie satisfied that an offence punishable under Sections 74-79 or Section 296 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, was committed. A breach of protection order by the accused shall attract up to three years in prison and a fine of up to ₹1 lakh.

The Bill seeks to bring different types of harassment inflicted on women, including through digital and electronic means, within the ambit of the Act. It also seeks to increase punishment for certain offences.

Once the amendment is passed, harassment of women or abetting it at public places would attract up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of ₹1 lakh on the first conviction and imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of ₹10 lakh on the second or subsequent conviction. Harassment intending to cause death would attract even a death penalty. Harassment resulting in suicide would lead to imprisonment of up to 15 years with a fine of ₹2 lakh. Harassment death, harassment suicide, and abetment of harassment suicide shall be cognizable and non-bailable. Harassment of women at public places , including educational institutions, places of worship, bus stops, roads, railway stations, cinema theatres, parks, beaches, places of festival, among others, would be treated as cognizable offences and be non-bailable.

Those in charge of educational institutions, places of worship, cinema theatres, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, among others, would be required to install CCTV cameras and lights to prevent harassment of women. They should inform the police within 24 hours of receiving complaints.

A Bill to amend the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, proposes three to five years of imprisonment and a fine for disclosure of identity of victim of certain offences. In case of assault or use of criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman, it seeks the minimum punishment of at least three years of imprisonment, which may extend to five years, and a fine.