 the  atrocities against women (prevention, special courts and miscellaneous provisions) bill, 2007 a billto provide for the prevention of atrocities against women and girls which are perpetratedin many forms such as sexual harassment, torture, molestation, rape, teasing, stripping, beating, branding as witch, etc by establishing special courts to expedite the trial process and for the rehabilitation and other measures for the women victims of such atrocities and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the atrocities against women (prevention, special courts and miscellaneous provisions) act, 2007short title and commencement5(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2  in this act, unless the context otherwise requires— (a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in other cases, the central government;545 of 1860 (b) "atrocity" includes any offence committed against a woman such as rape, assault, torture, molestation, teasing, striping, beating, branding as witch, forcing into prostitution or such other offence against the women and girls which is punishable under the indian penal code;10 (c) "employer" means any person who employs women workers directly or through any contractor and who has the control on the affairs of the establishment which may be under the control of any government, local body or private body or individual by whatever name called; (d) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; (e) "sexual harassment at work place" includes,—15(i) harassing any woman employee by paying less wages, detaining her before or after normal working hours without work or in the absence of other employees, refusing to grant leave, passing lewd or obscene remarks, forcing to attend office on holidays, compelling to attend a party or dance, refusing to allow rest, compelling to perform such duties which she is not able to perform with her physical condition or doing an act by using position as an employer with an intention to exploit the women employee;20 (ii) fondling or touching the female employee in the guise of teaching her or helping her in doing her work; (iii) showing gestures or actions either by words or by written material to solicit sexual favour from the woman employee;25 (iv) showing pornographic material or obscene literature to the woman employee; (v) offering unwanted suggestions or advise about physical appearances of the woman employee with a view to hurt her; (vi) seeking sexual favour from the woman employee; (vii) misusing position to sexually exploit the woman employee30 35(f) "work place" includes an office of the appropriate government local body, a mine, plantation, agricultural field, hospital, nursing home, shop or business establishment brick kiln, construction site, banking establishments, educational institutions including universities, colleges, schools, etc, any private office or house, entertainment establishments and such other places where woman is employed for any work for remuneration3 (1) committing of atrocities against women and sexual harassment of women employees at their work place is hereby prohibited (2) whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be guilty of an offence under this act40prohibition of atrocities against women and sexual harassment of women employees at their work place penalty45 of 18604  (1) notwithstanding anything contained in the indian penal code, whoever,—(a) commits atrocity against any woman or girl shall be punished with imprisonmentfor a term which shall not be less than seven years but in view of the gravity of the offence it may extend to life imprisonment or with death, as the case may be;explanation—for the purpose of this sub-section the grave offences include rape, gang rape, rape with a pregnant woman, forcing into prostitution and brutal killing of a woman(b) commits the offence of sexual harassment of woman employee in any establishment or work place shall be,—5(i) dismissed from service if the culprit is employed in government or semi-government, local body or government funded establishment as the case may be; and(ii) punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but may extend to ten years and also with a fine which may extend to five lakh rupees105 (1) the appropriate government shall establish such number of special courts preferably headed by women judges to deal exclusively with the provisions of this act, as it may deem necessary for carrying out the purposes of this actestablishmentof special courts for women15 (2) the special courts under sub-section (1) shall be established in consultation with the chief justice of the concerned high courts of the states45 of 186020 (3) every special court established under this act shall exercise all the jurisdiction powers and authority exercisable immediately before that day by all courts except the concerned high court and supreme court in relation to all matters of offences or atrocities committed against women under the indian penal code, or any other law for the time being in force relation to women(4)  from the date of commencement of this act, the jurisdiction, powers and authority in relation to offences committed under this act shall be exercisable by a special court established under this act and no other court except the high court concerned and the supreme court shall have jurisdiction, powers or authority in relation to such offences25(5) every suit or other proceeding pending before any other court, tribunal or authority immediately before the date of commencement of this act, being a suit or proceeding the cause of action wherein it is  based is such that if it had arisen after such constitution of the special court within its jurisdiction, shall stand transferred on that date to such special court:30 provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply to a suit or other proceedings pending in a high court or the supreme court, as the case may be6 the appropriate government shall,—welfare measures(a) make arrangements for free legal aid to women so as to enable them to meet the cost of litigation in special courts;35(b) initiate rehabilitation measures for the women victims covered under thisact;(c) implement such welfare measures for the women covered under this act asit may deem expedient and necessary40act to have overriding effect7 the provisions of this act and the rules made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force but save as aforesaid the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being in force in relation to women and girlspower to make rules8 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsnearly fifty per cent of the population of our country constitutes women and girls though the latest census of 2001 has revealed a stunning fact of declining ratio of girls visa-vis boys in the country however, girls and women are vulnerable to various kinds of exploitations and atrocities in the society such atrocities include day-to-day teasing and molestation at public places; transport etc, passing vulgar remarks and whistling to them another alarming trend is publicly stripping and parading naked in the streets particularly the young girls and women of dalit and backward communities in some parts of the country there are incidents, where women are being branded as witches and killed they are being sexually exploited and raped even pregnant women are not spared many a time women and girls are killed after committing rape on them to destroy the evidence or otherwise besides, incident of gangrape and forcing women to prostitution are very commonthe number of working women is also increasing at work place sometimes, women are compelled to work in the most disadvantageous service conditions they are sexually harassed by their male colleagues, bosses, employers and others sexual favours are solicited on various pretexts and many a time women employees are forced to accept the offer otherwise they are fired or sacked unfortunately, cases of sexual harassment of women employees at the work places do occur but more often these are not reported for fear of social ostracism, family pressure or reprisal in the form of threats and discriminationsmost of the cases of atrocities against women and girls, if at all registered, take a very long time to decide it has, therefore, become necessary that offences against women should be tried by special courts preferably headed by women judges so that justice is delivered very fast to the women victimshence this billalka  balram  kshatriya financial  memorandumclause 5 of the bill provides for the establishment of special courts for womenclause 6 provides for the welfare measures the bill, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees five hundred crore may involve as recurring expenditure per annumnon-recurring expenditure to the tune of two thousands crore rupees may also involve memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 8 of the bill gives power to the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character———— abillto provide for the prevention of atrocities against women and girls which are perpetratedin many forms such as sexual harassment, torture, molestation, rape, teasing, stripping,beating, branding as witch, etc by establishing special courts to expedite the trialprocess and for the rehabilitation and other measures for the womenvictims of such atrocities and for matters connected therewithor incidental thereto—————(prof alka balram kshatriya, mp)mgipmrnd—1772rs (s3)—27-04-2007