Parliament Watch: Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill passed; no proposal to reduce age of consent under POCSO Act

The 2022 Winter Session of Indian Parliament on Wednesday saw the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill being passed by the Rajya Sabha..Questions were answered regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image in the footer of emails from the Supreme Court, the conviction rate under the POCSO Act and more..The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill was was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019, and passed by the Lower House on Monday.The Bill enables Indian authorities to take action against piracy in the high seas. It brings into law the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and applies to the seas beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India.It defines piracy as any illegal act of violence, detention or destruction against a ship, aircraft, person or property, for private purposes, by the crew or passengers of a private ship or aircraft. The definition also includes inciting and intentionally facilitating such acts of violence, and voluntarily participating in the operation of a pirate ship or aircraft.Committing an act of piracy will be punishable with life imprisonment, or death, if the act of piracy causes or seeks to cause death.The Supreme Court has held in judgments that mandatory death penalty for any offence is unconstitutional as it violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution..Maharashtra Rajya Sabha MP Imran Pratapgarhi sought to know from the Ministry of Home Affairs the number of prisoners in the country who have not been released from jails even after completing their sentence.Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra said that prisons and prisoners are State List subjects, and therefore their administration and management, including release of prisoners on completion of sentence, is the concern of respective state governments. However, he said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has been supplementing the efforts of the state governments by issuing advisories on varied aspects of prison administration from time to time.He further said that under a special scheme by the Central government, state governments have been asked to release prisoners who have completed their terms but are behind bars due to non-payment of fine on August 15, 2022, January 26, 2023 and August 15, 2023..Kerala Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam asked whether the government was cognizant of whether consensual sexual relationships often get criminalized under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and whether it planned to reduce the age of consent from 18 to 16.Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development, emphasised that the Act was established to protect children from sexual abuse and clearly defines a child as any person under the age of 18.She further stated that the Act was amended in 2019 to include stricter punishments, including the death penalty, in order to deter perpetrators and prevent similar crimes against children. She also stated that if a child commits an offence under the act, the child would be tried under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. Therefore, she stated that the question of reducing the age of consent does not arise..Kerala Lok Sabha MP Hibi Eden sought details on the unfortunate incident in which a clarificatory note issued by the Supreme Court stated that the image of PM Modi being carried as a footer on its emails had “no connection whatsoever with the functioning of the judiciary”.The reply stated that the Registry of the Supreme Court brought to the notice of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) an image appearing as a footer in emails of the Supreme Court and directed replacing of the same from emails originating from the Supreme Court. However, the reply only stated when the image was removed and the new image was applied..Tamil Nadu MP Anbumani Ramadoss asked in the Rajya Sabha whether the government was aware that the conviction rate in cases under the POCSO Act is less than 30% and if so, the reasons for it.The reply revealed that the conviction rate in cases registered under the POCSO Act was 30.4%, 36.3%, 29.6%, 33.2%, 34.2%, 34.6%, 39.6% and 32.2% for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.