Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking the President’s assent to two bills passed by the Punjab Assembly in 2018 amid alleged incidents of sacrilege and subsequent lynchings of holy scriptures of the Sikh community. Punishment for life imprisonment for any person causing hurt, damage or insult to the Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and Bible with the intention of hurting the religious sentiments of the people.
In the letter, Randhawa said that the bills were approved by the Governor of Punjab on September 12, 2018. “However, these bills are pending for the assent of the President of India since October 2018.”
An official of the Punjab Home Department said that the state government took up the matter with the Center several times, but there was no response.
Randhawa told Indian Express That “the state has written several times to the center regarding the pending approval of state bills”.
He said that “Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has not yet sent the Bills to the President of India for his assent”.
“Bills still lie with the home ministry and keep swinging between ministries, writes Shah and the state. They keep raising objections one after the other. It’s been more than three years. The Home Department has answered all the questions being raised by them. We have been arguing that the Guru Granth Sahib is considered the living Guru of the Sikhs. Then why can’t sacrilege be treated as murder?” He asked.
He said that under sections 295 and 295A, the accused can get bail in 15 days. The abusers are not afraid of the law not being strict.
The minister also said that the state wants “the Center to either reject or approve the bills”. “If they don’t want to give consent, that’s all they should say. What they are doing is only a delay tactic. In case of rejection, we can find an alternative. Now the perpetrators are wiped out,” he said. would have happened,” he said. This lynching has happened because people feel that the culprits will not get the harshest punishment. They have taken the law into their own hands.
In August 2018, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a bill that proposed life imprisonment for insulting the Guru Granth Sahib, the Gita, the Quran and the Bible in Punjab, while the Shiromani Akali Dal sought to record its observation. . That there should be “discrimination” among gurus. The Granth Sahib and other sacred texts are considered “living gurus” since the Sikhs’ holy scripture.
Earlier on March 21, 2016, the then SAD-BJP The government had passed the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016, making the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib punishable by life imprisonment by inserting section 295AA of the Indian Penal Code Was. Punishment. was recommended. Imprisonment for two to 10 years under IPC section 295 (causing damage to or profane place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class).
Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code deals with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs” and shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years. can go. , and to include another clause. Purpose Amendment Bill provides. 295 AA The accused of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Indian Express reported on April 22, 2017 that the Center has returned bills stating that all religions should be treated equally according to the secular nature of the Constitution and that desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib punishable with life imprisonment. should be given. Religion cannot be separated to propose. The Center had asked the Punjab government to either withdraw the bill or include all religions in the proposed amendment if it wants the bill to be looked at afresh. The Union Home Ministry had sent the bill back on March 16, 2017, the day Amarinder Singh was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Punjab following the Congress’ victory in the 2017 Assembly elections.
Subsequently, the Punjab Assembly, where the Congress government was in an absolute majority, withdrew 2016 bills returned by the Center in August 2018, and a new bill proposing life imprisonment for desecration of religious texts of all four religions. Passed it. Did. The new bill upheld an earlier amendment proposed in another 2016 bill relating to Section 295 of the IPC, where the sentence was proposed to be increased from two to 10 years.
During discussion on the 2018 bill, SAD MLA Gurpratap Singh Wadala said that his party “supported the bill proposing life imprisonment for desecration of the four holy scriptures”, but demanded that the “Supreme Court also read the Guru Granth”. Sahib is approved. Recognized as the living Guru, therefore it should be distinguished from other scriptures.”
then chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh The comments were read by the Centre, which said, “Since India is a secular country and does not have a specific religion… it may not be prudent to insert section 295AA for a particular religious community. It is to be noted that it is possible That the Government of India, while examining the Bill, has also taken the opinion of the then Attorney General of India, Shri Mukul Rohatgi.
Amarinder had further read that Rohatgi had said, “In my view the proposed insertion of Article 295AA would be contrary to the Constitution. Secularism is the basic feature of the constitution. The SR Bommai case was executed in 1994. There is no state religion in India. The Indian state has not recognized any particular religion. People living in India have the right to follow any religion. The proposed section 295AA would promote/partially promote only one religion. Similar basic feature of the Constitution, similarly the proposed sentence of ten years is proposed under section 295. He is excessive. In my view, the President of India cannot give his assent.