Govt to bring anti-torture law to ratify UN Convention

New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) The Indian government will bring
an anti-torture law to ratify a UN Convention against torture
and other cruel and inhuman treatment or punishment.
"The Union Cabinet today approved a proposal to
introduce the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 in the
Parliament," India's Information and Broadcasting Minister
Ambika Soni told reporters here.
This is a step towards ratification of the Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading
Treatment of Punishment adopted by the UN General Assembly on
December 9, 1975. India had signed the Convention in October,
1997.
"After a lot of deliberation on the issue, it was
decided to bring a piece of 'stand alone' legislation so that
the Convention could be ratified. Accordingly, a draft Bill,
namely the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2009 was drafted," Soni
said.
Ratification of the Convention requires enabling
legislation having provisions that would be necessary to give
effect to the Articles of the Convention. Although some
provisions exist in the Indian Penal Code, they neither define
"torture" as clearly as in Article 1 of the Convention nor
make it criminal as called for by Article 4.
For ratification of the Convention, therefore, the
domestic laws of the country would require to be brought in
tune with the provisions of the Convention. This would
necessitate either amendment of the existing laws such as IPC
or bringing in a new piece of legislation.
The matter was examined at length in consultation with
the Law Commission of India and the then Attorney General
of India.
"As the matter is in the Concurrent List of the Seventh
Schedule of the Constitution, the views of the state
governments were sought. The views of the concerned Central
Ministries were also obtained," Soni said. PTI ACB
MRD