Shivani Gadhavi
Published On : December 22, 2021 at 20:47 IST
The Jharkhand Legislative Assembly on December 21, 2021 passed a bill called “Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021”, which would have provisions that would protect the constitutional rights of citizens and would prevent the occurrence of mob brutalities in the State.
The Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021 was proposed in the House by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam of the Indian National Congress.
The State of Orissa would be the fourth state in the Country after Rajasthan, Bengal and Manipur to have passed a bill that would seek measures to prevent atrocities related to mob lynching, that it after is receives the approval of the Governor.
The definition of ‘lynching’ in the Bill goes as “…any act or series of acts of violence or death…whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity or any other ground”.
Any person who would be find getting involved in mob lynching is likely to be punished with life imprisonment and be fined up to INR 5 Lakhs, depending on nature and level of the crime. If a person dies due to the result of the lynching, the accused could be fined for INR 25 lakhs. Offences under this bill would be classified as non-bailable, cognizable and non-compoundable.
A Legislator of the Bhartiya Janata Party named Amar Bouri criticized and opposed the proposal of the Bill stating, “There is a tradition in the tribal community to resolve various issues arising out of their villages etc. …, Tomorrow if there is any problem and the tribals want to resolve a certain issue, then a person may be booked for abetting the accused. This Bill is anti-Jharkhand.”