Minister pledges amendment to rape law in current parliament session

Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens, Uma Regmi, pledged to initiate and table a government-sponsored bill to amend the law regarding rape in the ongoing House session.

In a meeting of the Women and Social Committee, House of Representatives (HoR) today, the Minister said the government was committed to ensuring justice to survivors of sexual violence and would seek help from all quarters to introduce the bill.

 During the meeting focused on the discussions about the time limit for registering a case of sexual violence/harassment, the Minister was clear that there should be no statute of limitation for seeking justice for rape. “I have summoned a meeting to discuss the matter today itself. The amendment process will go ahead is based on suggestions of the law ministry and bodies concerned.”

The Minister informed the meeting that the Ministry representing 75 percent population of the nation that had a budget of just Rs 800 million, from this year would have a ceiling of Rs 1.45 billion.

The removal of district-based women development officers’ offices had made women visit the Ministry to report their issues and the additional budget was sought to set up a liaison unit at the district coordination committee level to document these issues.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Bandi said that earlier today he sat with the people of the Law Commission to identify room for revisions in the rape-related laws so as to make the crime punishable no matter when it occurred. He said the Commission has been directed to assess and report the provisions requiring amendments. “The government is committed to amending the law.”

Committee president Nirudevi Pal directed the bodies concerned including the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to amend the law at the earliest by coordinating." he said.

The Committee has drawn the attention of the government to make provisions for taking maximum legal action against perpetrators and having it implemented.

Pushpa Bhusal, Bina Kumari Shrestha, Bimala BK, Anita Devkota, Bimala Rai Poudel, Pramila Kumari, Binda Pandey, Amrita Thapa, Dhruba Kumar Shahi, Laxmi Pariyar, Narayan Khatiwada, Anjana Bishankhe, Hira Gurung, Thama Maya Thapa, among other lawmakers pressed for amending the statute of limitation on rape arguing that it was not practical.

A debate has been ongoing after a woman shared on social media the horrifying story of her alleged rape by an organiser of a beauty pageant who called her to a hotel eight years ago.

The Committee stressed the need to build an environment so that the accused perpetrators would not evade legal action.

Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey on the occasion committed to not leaving any stone unturned for bringing the accused under the process of legal action.