INDIA’S PARLIAMENT will today debate the introduction of new laws which would include the death penalty for convicted rapists.
The laws would apply to cases where a rape victim is killed or left in a permanently vegetative state.
The legislation follows government promises to take a harsher stance on rapists after the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in Delhi last December.
Indian law allowed the new rules to be introduced unilaterally last month – but a Bill to make the new punishments permanent must be passed before Friday if they are to become permanent.
The new laws also raise the age of consent to 18. It had been 16 until the introduction of the new interim laws last month.
BBC News said the new measures also increase the criminal sanction for offences like stalking and voyeurism.
The minimum sentence for a rape conviction, which currently stands at seven years, will be extended to 20 years.
The laws are almost guaranteed to pass after the main opposition party said it would support the Bill.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party as saying it had “absolutely no reservations now about the bill as the government has accepted most of our suggestions including on the age for consensual sex.”
Discussion on the legislation was scheduled before a Swiss woman was allegedly gang raped on a forest road on Friday. Six people were due to appear in court in connection with those allegations this morning.
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