Punjab Govt Forms 15-Member Panel on Sacrilege Bill, Report to Be Submitted in 6 Months

Chandigarh (The Uttam Hindu): A 15-member select committee has been formed to review the bill that provides for strict punishment in cases of desecration of religious texts in Punjab. Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on Saturday constituted this committee under the chairmanship of MLA Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar. This committee will submit its report to the Assembly within 6 months.

The main objective of this committee is to deliberate on all aspects of the proposed bill related to insult of holy scriptures and give its recommendations. The formation of this committee has raised the hope that the law will be further strengthened for the protection and respect of religious scriptures, which will help in maintaining peace and harmony in the society.

It is noteworthy that the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government is the third state government since 2015 that has attempted to enact a new law to ensure stringent punishment in cases of desecration of religious texts.

What are the stringent provisions of punishment in the bill?

The proposed bill includes very stringent provisions of punishment to prevent serious crimes like sacrilege. According to this bill, if a person is found guilty of sacrilege, he can be punished with a minimum of 10 years imprisonment to life imprisonment. Along with this, there is a proposal to increase the amount of fine from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Not only this, if a person even attempts to commit such a crime, he can be imprisoned for 3 to 5 years and fined up to Rs 3 lakh. Considering the seriousness of the case, it will be heard only in the Sessions Court and all the relevant sections will be non-bailable and non-compoundable, which means that the accused will not get bail easily nor can there be any mutual settlement in it.

Members of the Select Committee

1. Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar (Chairman)

2. Dr. Ajay Gupta

3. Dr. Amandeep Kaur Arora

4. Inderjit Kaur Mann

5. Jagdeep Kamboj

6. Jangi Lal Mahajan

7. Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa

8. Neena Mittal

9. Prof. Baljinder Kaur

10. Principal Budhha Ram

11. Brahma Shankar Jimpa

12. Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal

13. Madan Lal Bagga

14. Manpreet Singh Iyal

15. Mohd Jameel ur Rehman