Anti-rape bill a ‘copy–paste’ of other similar bills: Bengal governor Bose

West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose told off the Mamata Banerjee administration for "failing to send" the technical report along with the recently passed anti-rape 'Aparajita' bill, which he claimed is necessary for him to give his assent, a Raj Bhavan official told PTI on Thursday, 5 September.

Bose was "very disappointed", the official said, as it has been a regular practice of the state not to send technical reports along with bills and then blaming the governor's office for not clearing them, he claimed.

"The governor criticised the state administration for failing to attach the technical report along with the Aparajita bill. As per rule, it is mandatory for the state government to send the technical report before a decision is taken on giving assent to the bill," the Raj Bhavan official told PTI on Thursday, 5 September.

"This is not the first time that the government has withheld technical reports and blamed the Raj Bhavan for not clearing Bills," he added.

The governor also admonished the state government for failing to do its "homework" on important matters, such as this one.

"Bose has pointed out that the (Aparajita) bill appears to be a copy-paste of similar Bills passed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh," the official claimed.

Interestingly, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) Sharad Pawar recently called for a similar bill to West Bengal's to be tabled in Maharashtra. It is puzzling why he would do so if Maharashtra's existing laws were the same as proposed by West Bengal's Aparajita Bill.

The source said that the governor expressed his opinion that Banerjee was threatening a dharna "only to hoodwink the people of West Bengal as she is also fully well aware that similar bills are pending with the President of India".

The West Bengal assembly on 3 September unanimously passed the Aparajita Woman and Child Bill (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill, 2024, which seeks capital punishment for rape convicts if their actions result in the victim's death or leave her in a vegetative state. Perpetrators of rape in cases where the survivor is not left in such an extreme state would face a life sentence without parole.

Other significant features of the proposed legislation include the completion of probes into rape cases within 21 days of the first information report (a reduction from the previous two-month deadline) and the creation of a special task force where women officers will lead such investigations.

With PTI inputs