West Bengal Governor Returns Aparajita Bill to W.B. Government

• West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has returned the Aparajita Women and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, to the State government for further consideration.

• The amendment seeks to increase the punishment for rape from 10 years to life imprisonment for the remainder of one’s life or death.

• The Ministry of Home Affairs has deemed the change as excessively harsh and disproportionate.

• The Bill, passed 25 days after the rape and murder of a doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College, proposes death penalty for five categories of offences.

• The Bill also proposes to delete Section 65 of the BNS, 2023, eliminating the distinction in punishment for rape of women under 16 and under 12 years of age.

• The removal of this classification violates the principle of proportionality in sentencing.