No anticipatory bail to accused in crime against women: UP govt passes Bill

The UP Assembly passed the Bill that seeks to deny anticipatory bail to people accused of crime against women.

The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh Assembly has adopted the policy of ‘zero tolerance’towards crime against women and children. The state assembly passed the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2022 denying anticipatory bail to people accused of crimes against women and children.

The Bill, which was introduced in the UP Assembly on the initiative of CM Yogi Adityanath, abolished anticipatory bail for accused in heinous crimes against women. The Bill seeks to make changes in the provisions of the CrPC.

The Bill was introduced a day earlier on Thursday when the UP Assembly discussed steps to ensure women empowerment.

According to the information, after the bill is amended, there will be a provision that the accused in serious crimes against women such as rape, gang rape, sexual misconduct will not be able to get anticipatory bail. The anticipatory bail will also not be granted for accused booked under the POCSO Act.

The amendment bill seeks to make changes to Section 438 to the Code of Criminal Procedure and the POCSO Act. This means that the accused will not be able to get anticipatory bail if they are booked for serious crime against women.

While proposing the amendment bill, the UP government said that the move has been undertaken in line with zero tolerance policy in crimes against women and children.

The Bill states, “In pursuance of zero tolerance policy towards crimes against women and children, to ensure prompt collection of evidence in sexual offenses, to prevent such evidence from being annihilated, to minimize the possibility of destruction of evidences and to restrain the accused from causing fear and coercion to the victim /witnesses, it has been decided to amend the section 438 of Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.”