Bill on life term for sacrilege to cover all religions

Chandigarh, August 21

Sacrilege of all religious scriptures will attract life imprisonment in Punjab. At a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday, the Cabinet approved amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in this regard. The legislation will be tabled on the last day of the Vidhan Sabha session, beginning on August 24.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal stated that the Cabinet approved insertion of Section 295AA to the IPC to provide that “whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and Bible with the intention of hurting the religious feelings of the people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life.”

The Centre had objected to the Bill, passed by the Assembly in March 2016, on the grounds that it should include punishment for sacrilege of all religions, not exclusively Sikhism.

Desecration had become an emotive issue after a series of such incidents in Faridkot and other districts and the subsequent firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in 2015.

To allow the amendments, the Cabinet okayed the withdrawal of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016, and the IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016. It has given its nod to the introduction of The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the Assembly session. — TNS