Consultative Committee approves Bill on communal violence

New Delhi – The much awaited Bill on prevention and control of communal violence has been approved by the Consultative Committee of the Home Ministry on December 15.

The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill 2005, was introduced by Home Minister Shivraj Patil in the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of the Parliament) on December 5, 2005.

The Committee members felt that with introduction of the Bill in Parliament recently, a big step has been taken in the direction of fulfilling a long–standing need for such a legislation. The members expressed happiness over the fact that the Bill is very comprehensive and takes into account not only violence between people of different religions but also different castes and other groups.

The members particularly hailed the provisions relating to prevention of acts leading to communal violence, enhanced punishments for communal violence and certain other offences, speedy investigation and trial of offences through special courts and institutional arrangements for relief, and rehabilitation and compensation.

One provision that evoked lively debate at the meeting was the provision of the Bill which enables the Central Government to deploy armed forces in a communally disturbed area only at the request of the State Government.

Some members were of the opinion that the request of the State government for such deployment should not be mandatory in view of the fact that the deployment will be done only after the State government has failed to follow the directions of the Central Government to take all immediate measures to suppress communal violence. Others were of the view that while the guidance and assistance of the Union Government is necessary to enable the State Government to deal with communal violence, due care should be taken to ensure that authority of the State Government is not impaired in any manner.

The Home Minister, Shri Shivraj Patil, who chaired the meeting said that the issue needed to be discussed at length. He said that the Government wanted to obtain the views of various sections of the society on the Bill. To this end, seminars will be held in various parts of the country in the days to come.

The Bill has also been put on the Home Ministry’s website, www.mha.nic.in.