 bill no 298  of  2016 the prevention of atrocities on women bill, 2016 byshri om prakash yadav, mp a billto prevent atrocities against women in the country, to specify special courts for the trial of offences committed against women and for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of such offences and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the prevention of atrocities on women  act, 2016(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencementdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of state, the government of that state and in all other cases the central government;(b) "atrocity" means an offence punishable under section 3;5(c) "code" means the code of criminal procedure, 1973; (d) "employer" means,—(i) in relation to an establishment under the control of the appropriate government, the head of the department or ministry, as the case may be;10(ii) in relation to an establishment under any local authority or local self government, the chief executive officer by whatever designation called; and(iii) in relation to other cases, the person or the authority who has the ultimate control over the affairs of the work place(e) "special court"means a court of session specified as a special court under section 7; and15(f) words and expressions used but not defined in this act and defined in code or the indian penal code shall have the meanings assigned to them respectively in the code, or, in the indian penal code, 1980, as the case may be3 (1) whoever,—punishment for offences ofatrocities20(i) makes any lewd remarks, gestures, signs or insinuations against a woman inoffice or in any public place;(ii) assaults or uses force against any woman with intent to dishonour or outrageher modesty;25(iii) forcibly removes clothes from the person of a woman or parades her nakedor with painted face or body or commits any similar act which is derogatory to human dignity;(iv) compels or entices a woman to do 'begar' or other similar forms of forced orbonded labour;(v) being in a position to dominate the will of a woman and uses that position toharass or exploit her sexually, to which she would not have otherwise agreed;30(vi) intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a woman in anyplace within public view;(vii) institutes false, malicious or vexatious suit or criminal or other legalproceedings against a woman;35(viii) takes pictures or video of a woman without her consent or knowledge,violating her privacy;(ix) forces or compels any woman into prostitution; (x) declares any woman witch or daiyan or by any other name called;40shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but which may extend upto five years and with fine which may extend upto twenty-five thousand rupees (2) whoever, being a public servant, commits any offence punishable under this section, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend upto the maximum punishment provided for that offencepunishment for neglect ofduties4 whoever, being a public servant, willfully neglects his duties required to be performed by him under this act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend upto one yearspecial court55 for the purposes of providing speedy trial, the appropriate government shall, withthe concurrence of the chief justice of high court, by notification in the official gazette, specify for each district a court of sessions to be a special court to try offences under this actprocedure to be followed by special court106 (1) where the special court is satisfied, upon a compliant or a police report that a person is likely to commit an offence under this act, it may, by order in writing, direct such person to remove himself beyond the limits of such area, within such time as may be specified in the order, and not to return to that area from which he was directed to remove himself for such period, not exceeding one year, as may be specified in the order(2) the special court shall, along with the order under sub-section (1), communicate to the person directed under that sub-section the grounds on which such order has been made15(3) the special court may revoke or modify the order made under sub-section (1), for the reasons to be recorded, on the representation made by the person against whom such order hass been made or by any other person on his behalf within thirty days from the date of the order207 whoever, contravenes an order of the special court made under section 6 shall bepunishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and with fine which may extend upto ten thousand rupeespunishment for contravention of order of special courtdeclaration of area prone to atrocities25 308 a district magistrate or a sub-divisional magistrate or any other executive magistrate or any police officer not below the rank of a deputy superintendent of police may, on receiving information and after such inquiry as he may think necessary, has reason to believe that a person or a group of persons, residing in or frequenting any place within the local limits of his jurisdiction is likely to commit an offence or has threatened to commit any offence under this act and is of the opinion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding, declare such an area to be an area prone to atrocities and take preventive action in such manner as may be prescribed9 (1) the appropriate government shall provide such relief and rehabilitation to thevictims of the atrocities under this act by framing schemes as may be notified, from time to timeappropriate government to framescheme35(2) without prejudice to the generality of the aforesaid provision, the appropriategovernment shall provide free board and lodging and medical facilities to the severely affected victims of atrocities under this act10 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, provide requisite funds for being utilised for the purposes of this actcentral government to provide funds40power to remove difficulty11 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this  act, the centralgovernment may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appears it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty:provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of the period of threeyears from the date of commencement of this act45protection of action taken in good faith12 no suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the centralgovernment or against the state government or any officer or authority of government or any other persons for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this actact to have overriding effect power to make rules5 1013 save as otherwise provided in this act, the provisions of this act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or any custom or usage or any instrument having effect by virtue of any other law14 (1) the central government may, by notification in this official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions and if before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or successive sessions aforesaid both houses agree in making any modification in the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonswomen are the most vulnerable lot of our society every now and then, women are subjected to atrocities and violence in one form or the other they are subjected to all kinds of torture which more often than not go unreported at times, the administration does not respond with the kind of agility that is required on the incidents of atrocities on women there is no dearth of incidents when women are paraded naked in many places in our country and, at time, also declared as witches or daiyans this is the worst kind of treatment given to women without any fault they are left at the mercy of their fate and no one comes to their rescue further, sexual harassment of women in work place is also very common and frequent the supreme court of india has taken this issue very seriously in the case of vishaka and others vs state of rajasthan and others [1997 (7) sec 323] the supreme court has laid down norms and guidelines to be followed by employers or other responsible persons in the work places or other institutions to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment and also to provide the procedures for resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment by taking all steps required including setting up of complaints committees for redressal of the complaint made by the victim pending the enactment of suitable legislative the national commission for women had also taken up this issue very seriously it was, however been found that the compliant committees were not formed in a number of cases women are continued to be mentally and sexually exploited and pushed into flesh trade in, 2013, the government enacted a legislation namely the sexual  harassment of  women at work place (prevention, prohibition and redressal) act, 2013 in order to provide protection against sexual harassment of woman at work place and for the prevention and redressal of complaint of sexual harassment etc there is however, a need for strict punishment which will serve as deterrent for others and also special courts for expeditious trial of those accused of offences committed against womenhence this billnew delhi;om prakash yadavnovember 3, 2016 financial memorandumclause 9 of the bill provides that the appropriate government shall  provide relief and rehabilitation including free boarding, lodging and medical facilities to the women and children who are victims of atrocities clause 10 of the bill provides that the central government shall provide requisite funds for the purposes of this bill the expenditure relating to states shall be borne out of the consolidated funds of the state government concerned the expenditure relating to union territories shall be borne out of the consolidated fund of  india the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a recurring expenditure of rupees twenty crore per annum would involve from the consolidated fund of india  a non-recurring expenditure to the tune of rupees one crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 14 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of this  bill as the rules will relate to the matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto prevent atrocities against women in the country, to specify special courtsfor the trial of offences committed against women and for the relief andrehabilitation of the victims of such offences and for mattersconnected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri om prakash yadav, mp)gmgipmrnd—3273ls(s3)—29-11-2016