Sacrilege Bill draft not yet ready; want it watertight: Cheema
Cabinet Minister Harpal Cheema, addressing the media after the meeting, said that the government was consulting a panel of officers and legal luminaries while preparing the draft. 'We are taking opinion from Legal Remembrancer (LR) and Advocate General (AG). We do not want to bring any law in haste. We will prepare a draft that will stay the scrutiny of the law even if we have to extend our Vidhan Sabha session. The previous SAD-BJP and Congress governments had passed these Bills in their respective terms. But none could become an Act. We do not want to follow suit,' said Cheema.
He said several other important decisions were discussed in the Cabinet meeting. 'We can take up the decision on the Bill anytime once the draft is ready. It could be tomorrow or day after,' he added.
Official sources, meanwhile, said that the government was now taking opinion if it should enact a state law or go with the insertions in sacrilege law already existing under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). It was also being debated whether it should entail capital punishment or go ahead with a lifer.
It is learnt that the leaders within the ruling Aam Aadmi Party were also divided on the issue of capital punishment. 'There are reservations. Also, most part of the world frowns upon the capital punishment now,' a party leader said on anonymity.
Another party leader said that this law could be used against political opponents also. 'Most of the holy books are sold like any other books in the market. In case of holy books, anybody could lodge a complaint against the other for politics. If we happen to sit in the Opposition ever, this could well be used against us.'
A source said that the draft was with AG Maninderjit Singh Bedi. There are other legal luminaries also on board. 'Even if we bring a state Bill, it would have to go to the President of India for assent. If the Centre did not forward it to the President in the past, how are we certain that it would be sent to her now?' asked an official.
The government has called a special session of Vidhan Sabha on July 10 and 11 following Chief minister Bhagwant Mann's assurance to Sarb Dharam Beadbi Rokko Kanoon Morcha, whose representative Gurjeet Singh Khalsa has been sitting on a dharna atop a BSNL tower in Samana since October last year. He has been seeking a law with exemplary punishment for sacrilege.
Even before the Cabinet met Monday, the Morcha issued a statement thanking the CM for tabling the Bill in the Cabinet. Bhai Gurpreet Singh, coordinator of the morcha said in the statement that by fulfilling his June 28 statement to enact a law for strict punishment for the perpetrators of sacrilege, CM Mann has further raised his political stature among the people of Punjab. He said that we are seeing their determination against sacrilege from the speed with which they are fulfilling the promise made to the delegation of the front. He appealed to all the MLAs of Punjab to unanimously pass the Bill and the Governor to immediately give his assent.
After the Cabinet meeting, however, the morcha withdrew the statement saying they had issued it in anticipation that the Bill was being tabled. 'We withdraw it. We are hurt,' said Bhai Gurpreet Singh.
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