The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Friday passed the Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, 2019 (Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2019). The bill provides for awarding death sentence for offenses of rape and gangrape and expediting trials of such cases to within 21 days.
The Act envisages the completion of investigation in seven days and trial in 14 working days, where there is adequate conclusive evidence, and reducing the total judgment time to 21 days from the existing four months. The AP Disha Act also prescribes life imprisonment for other sexual offenses against children and includes Section 354 F and 354 G in IPC.
However, experts on a debate panel on Times Now News channel say the law is impractical. Senior Advocate who was the Public Prosecutor in the high profile 26/11 case, Ujwal Nikam and Former Mumbai top cop MN Singh said that it is not possible to ensure justice in a short time.
MN Singh has termed the Andhra Pradesh Disha Act as highly atrocious and impractical due to a limited span of time for court trial and police investigation. “There should be a reasonable time like Six Months, 21 days is too less. We should ask for a cut down of the adjournments and the number of appeals. Whenever under pressure and when there is a public outcry, we take such decisions. This is most impractical and will not work,” MN Singh said. Meanwhile, the Central Government is yet to approve the bill passed by the AP Assembly.
