Jaipur: Citing legal reasons, The Governor of Rajasthan, Haribhau Bagade, has returned the bill to curb honor killings in the state. This was informed in the Rajasthan Assembly on the first day of the budget session on Wednesday. The Rajasthan Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill was passed during the previous Congress government in 2019.
The bill has been returned on the ground that the Bill deals with certain sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), both of which have now been repealed. Besides this, the Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, is sufficient to deal with honour killing which provides that murder is punishable by death or imprisonment for life, as well as a fine.
The Bill had carried various categories of punishment, with the maximum being for death: for causing the death of such a couple, or either of them, the convict may be punished “with death, imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life,” and with a fine of up to Rs 5 lakh.
While introducing the Bill in 2019, the previous Congress government in the objectives and reasons of the Bill had noted that “there has been a spurt in illegal intimidation by self-appointed bodies for bringing pressure against Sagotra marriages and inter-caste, inter-community, and inter-religious marriages between two consenting adults in the name of vindicating the honour of family, caste, or community." The Bill made accountable, among others, those who indulge in ostracization of such a couple or their family.
Also Watch:
The Rajasthan Protection from Lynching Bill, 2019, was returned on similar grounds as well last year.
With these two bills so far, the Rajasthan Governor Bagade has returned nine Bills passed during the previous Ashok Gehlot government, including three farm laws, namely the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill-2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, and the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020. These bills were introduced as part of the nationwide campaign launched by Congress against the three central agricultural laws.
