 bill no 245 of 2016 the witness protection program  bill, 2016 byshri baijayant panda, mp a billto provide for the protection of witnesses in criminal proceedings and to enhance the ability of a witness to give testimony in a judicial proceeding or to cooperate with law enforcement without fear of intimidation or reprisalbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the witness protection program  act, 2016 (2) it extends to the whole of india except the state of jammu and kashmirshort title, extent and commencementdefinition2  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 all other cases, the central government;                                 |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | b   | ) "competent authority" means member-secretary of the national legal          || services authority or the state legal services authority, as the case may be;              |     |                                                                               || 5                                                                                          |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | c   | ) "family member" includes parents, spouse, siblings, children and grand      || children of the witness;                                                                   |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | d   | ) "                                                                           || not allowed to participate;                                                                |     |                                                                               || 10                                                                                         |     |                                                                               || 39 of 1987                                                                                |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | e   | ) "national legal service authority" means the national legal services        || authority constituted under the legal services authority act, 1987;                        |     |                                                                               || 39 of 1987                                                                                |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | f   | ) "state legal service authority" means the state legal services authority    || constituted under the legal services authority act, 1987;                                  |     |                                                                               || 15                                                                                         |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | g   | ) "threat analysis report" means a detailed report prepared by designated     || police officers of the district/unit investigating the case reflecting the seriousness     |     |                                                                               || and credibility of the threat perception to a witness or his family members containing     |     |                                                                               || specific details about the nature of threats faced by the witness or his family members    |     |                                                                               || to their life, reputation or property;                                                     |     |                                                                               || 20                                                                                         |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | h   | ) "witness" means any person, who possesses information or document about     || any crime regarded by the competent authority as being material to any criminal            |     |                                                                               || proceeding and who has made a statement or who has given or agreed to give evidence        |     |                                                                               || in relation to such proceeding;                                                            |     |                                                                               || 25                                                                                         |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | i   | ) "witness protection application" means an application moved by the witness  || in the prescribed form before a competent authority for seeking witness protection         |     |                                                                               || order; and                                                                                 |     |                                                                               || (                                                                                          | j   | ) "witness proteciton order" means an order passed by the competent authority || detailing the steps to be taken for ensuring the safety of life, reputation or property of |     |                                                                               || witness and his family members and shall include an interim order, if any, passed          |     |                                                                               || during the pendency of witness protection application                                     |     |                                                                               || 30                                                                                         |     |                                                                               || classification                                                                             |     |                                                                               || of witnesses                                                                              |     |                                                                               |3 for the purposes of this act, the witnesses shall be classified into the following groups:—| (                                                                                               | a   | ) group a—where the threat extends to life of the witness or his family members;   ||-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| (                                                                                               | b   | ) group b—where the threat extends to safety, reputation or property of the        || witness or his family members; and                                                              |     |                                                                                    || 35                                                                                              |     |                                                                                    || (                                                                                               | c   | ) group c—where the threat is moderate and extends to harassment and               || intimidation of the witness or his family member's reputation or property, during the           |     |                                                                                    || investigation process                                                                          |     |                                                                                    || process of                                                                                      |     |                                                                                    || availing                                                                                        |     |                                                                                    || protection                                                                                     |     |                                                                                    || 40                                                                                              |     |                                                                                    || 4                                                                                              | (   | 1                                                                                  || offence, file a witness protection application for witness protection order at the court in     |     |                                                                                    || which the proceedings are being heard or before the competent authority, as the case may        |     |                                                                                    || be, in such manner as may be prescribed                                                        |     |                                                                                    || 45                                                                                              |     |                                                                                    || (2) the court or the competent authority, as the case may be, shall, upon receipt of an         |     |                                                                                    || application under sub-section (                                                                 | 1   | ), call for the threat analysis report and, shall, upon receipt                    || of report, evaluate the threat to the life, reputation or property of the witness or his family |     |                                                                                    || members or any other person, which it deems fit, to ascertain whether there is necessity to     |     |                                                                                    || pass a witness protection order or not                                                         |     |                                                                                    || 5                                                                                              | (   | 1                                                                                  || protect the witness                                                                            |     |                                                                                    || appropriate                                                                                     |     |                                                                                    || government                                                                                      |     |                                                                                    || to protect the                                                                                  |     |                                                                                    || witness                                                                                        |     |                                                                                    |(2) without generality of the foregoing provisions, the witness protection measures shall be proportional to the threat and shall include—(a) concealment of identity of the witness by referring to him with the changedname or alphabet;5(b) close protection and regular patrolling around the witness's place of residence;(c) holding of in-camera trials, if necessary;(d) avoidance of face-to-face contact between witness and accused duringinvestigation or trial;10(e) allowing a support person to remain present during recording of statementand deposition of witness;(f) provision of emergency contact persons for the witness; (g) monitoring of mail and telephone calls of witness; (h) installation of security devices such as security doors, close circuittelevision (cctv), alarms and fencing at the witness's place of residence;(i) temporary change of residence of witness during investigation or trial;15(j) ensuring expeditious recording of deposition during trial on day-to-day basiswithout adjournments;(k) awarding periodical financial aids or grants to the witness for the purposeof re-location and sustenance; and20(l) any other measure considered necessary and specifically those requested bythe witness6  it shall be the duty of the appropriate government to ensure that the witness is made aware of his rights under this act and ascertain that he may decide to exercise or not exercise the provisions and protections available to him under this actduty to inform the witness of his rights257 (1) the protections under this act shall be void and terminated if the court establishesthat the protectee gave false testimonies or deliberately misled the authorities and the courttermination of protection under this act(2) if the protection of a protectee is terminated under sub-section (1),  he shall be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to six months and also fine which may extend up to two thousand rupees308 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by lawin this behalf, provide requisite sums to the appropriate governments for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide requisite fundpower to remove difficulty359 (1) 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 to it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty:provided that no such order shall be made after expiry of two years from the date of commencement of this act (2) every order made under this section shall, as soon as may be after it is made, be laid before each house of parliament4010 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law, for the time being in forceact not in derogation of other lawspower to make rules11 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of the act5(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 the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, 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 rule10 statement of objects and reasonsin recent years crime has grown considerably criminal elements are much more becoming stronger and diverse they are engaging more and much frequently in systematic forms of cooperation designed to further their criminal activities in the investigation and prosecution of crime, particularly the more serious and complex forms of organized crime, it is essential that witnesses, the cornerstones for successful investigation and prosecution, have trust in criminal justice systems witnesses need to have the confidence to come forward to assist law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities they need to be assured that they will receive support and protection from intimidation and the harm that criminal groups may seek to inflict upon them in attempts to discourage or punish them from cooperating the supreme court as well as the law commission have emphasized on the need for legislative measures for protection of witnesseshence this billnew delhi;baijayant pandajuly 5, 2016 financial memorandumclause 5 of the bill provides for installation of security devices like closed circuit television security doors alarms and fencing at winess' place of residence it also provides for awarding periodical financial aids or grants to the witnesses clause 8 provides that the central government shall provide adequate funds to the state governments for carrying out the purposes of the act the expenditure relating to states shall be borne out of the consolidated funds of respective states the expenditure relating to union territory shall be incurred from the consolidated fund of india the bill, therefore, if enacted would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a recurring expenditure of about rupees five hundred crore per annum would be involved from the consolidated fund of indiaa non-recurring expenditure of about rupees ten crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 11 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the act as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto provide for the protection of witnesses in criminal proceedings and to enhance the ability of a witness to give testimony in a judicial proceeding or to cooperate with law enforcement without fear of intimidation or reprisal————(shri baijayant panda, mp)