Akansha Upadhyay
Published on – 05 December 2022 at 20:33 IST
The Central Government has informed the Supreme Court that the draft Trafficking of Persons (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill is currently under consideration of the Government and is being further amended.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has told the court that the bill is being considered by the government to ensure that:
- The law is duly responsive to ground level realities and requirements of the nation from all perspectives.
- The law is also appropriately complimentary to and juxtaposed and coordinated with the country’s existing legal framework and international obligations.
Through an affidavit filed before the apex court, the Center has submitted that the draft of the proposed amended bill and the cabinet note was sent to the cabinet secretariat on March 22, following due procedures for introducing the amended bill afresh. However, the Bill is being further revised considering the Cabinet Note and certain comments received with reference to the proposed Bill.
The Ministry has said that its endeavour is to finalize the draft bill in consultation with other ministries before seeking cabinet approval for introduction in Parliament.
With regard to the proposed legislation, the government has submitted that the draft bill now includes important provisions relating to organized crime in smuggling, including cross-border crime and aggravated forms of smuggling.
The bill further includes provisions for mandatory reporting, use of cyber or online tools for trafficking, high victim focus, an institutional framework for rehabilitation and stringent punishment to effectively deal with all forms of human trafficking.
The Center has further Informed the court that a decision was taken to hand over the responsibility of investigation of human trafficking cases to the National Investigation Agency. The submission is made in connection with the 2015 order of the Supreme Court directing the Center to set up the Organized Crime Investigation Agency (OCIA) to investigate cases of human trafficking.
According to the Centre, with the approval of the competent authorities, it was decided that instead of setting up a new agency, this responsibility at the national level would be handed over to the NIA. For this purpose, the NIA Act, 2008 has been amended in 2019, adding Sections 370 and 370A of the IPC to the schedule, thus empowering the NIA to take up human trafficking cases for investigation.
These submissions have been made by the Center through an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court seeking compliance of its 2015 order to frame a comprehensive law to combat trafficking. The government has now submitted that it has no intention of not complying with the 2015 order of the SC.