Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill Introduced in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday introduced a bill in parliament, which provides for stringent punishment including the death penalty for those involved in acts of piracy at sea.

The introduction of the bill comes days after some 18 Indians aboard a crude carrier were kidnapped off the coast of Nigeria. India is still negotiating the release of its nationals.

The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill 2019 is aimed at promoting the safety and security of India’s maritime trade, including the safety of its crew members. A text of the bill available on the Lok Sabha website said the government’s aim in drafting the proposed legislation was to keep up India’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), concluded in 1982. India ratified the UNCLOS in 1995.

Explaining the reasons for bringing in the bill, the text of legislation says that India does not have a separate domestic legislation dealing with the menace of piracy despite the fact that many Indian nationals fall prey to the menace.

The provisions of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to armed robbery and the Admiralty jurisdiction of certain courts have been invoked in the past to prosecute pirates apprehended by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard, it said.

“But in the absence of any specific law relating to the offence of maritime piracy in India, problems are being faced in ensuring effective prosecution of the pirates,” it said.

Section three of the bill says that “whoever commits any act of piracy, shall be punished (i) with imprisonment for life; or (ii) with death, if such person in committing the act of piracy causes death or an attempt thereof.”

The provision of the death penalty was objected to by opposition Congress party’s Shashi Tharoor who was of the view that the “automatic” award of the death penalty for acts of piracy was against the law. Jaishankar pointed out that the bill had provided for life imprisonment as well as ward of the death penalty separately, the latter not being the automatic first punishment for acts of piracy.

The bill noted that the menace of piracy had been growing with the Gulf of Aden seeing a major uptick in attacks by pirates from Somalia since 2008.

“This route is used by about 2000 ships each month for trade between Asia and Europe and East coast of Africa. With the enhanced (international) naval presence in the Gulf of Aden, pirates shifted their area of operations eastwards and southwards. This led to a flurry of piracy incidents towards the western coast of India as well,” it said.

“Given the increasing incidences of piracy, including within India’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and the increasing number of pirates apprehended by the Indian Naval forces, the need is felt for a comprehensive domestic legislation on piracy,” it said.

Accordingly, the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019, aims to ensure that the provisions of the proposed legislation are “applicable to all parts of the sea adjacent to and beyond the limits of Exclusive Economic Zone of India.”

It provides for “punishment for attempt to commit offence of piracy or being an accessory to the commission of offence” and well as “to provide for presumption of guilt in case certain conditions are satisfied,” the text said.

It also aims to make the offence extraditable and “to enable the Central Government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court, to specify certain courts as Designated Courts for speedy trial of offences of piracy under the proposed legislation,” it added.

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Source: LM

Image Courtesy: Naval Technology

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