NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, on Friday, sought response from
the Centre on a petition seeking framing of new law to deal with acid
attack as a special offence which has increased on a horrendous scale in
past few years.
Issuing notices to the Ministry of Law and Justice, Law
Commission and National Commission for Women, a Bench headed by Chief
Justice Y K Sabharwal sought reply from them on a plea by a victim of acid
attack.
A Delhi-based minor girl Laxmi, whose arms, face and other
body parts were severely disfigured and deformed by the acid attack, has
sought either framing of new law or for amending the existing criminal
laws like Indian Penal Code (IPC), Indian Evidence Act and the Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC) for dealing with acid attack.
The acid was thrown at her by three youths as she had refused
to marry one of them.
"This peculiar act/offence (acid attack) needs to be
classified as a separate offence and the need of the hour is that a new
law should be made in the existing laws to deal with the offence," the
girl's counsel Aparna Bhat said before a Bench also comprising Justice
Ruma Pal, Justice G P Mathur and Justice B N Srikrishna.
She suggested that the amendment or the law will have to be
supplemented with guidelines for supporting the victims of the acid
attacks and a mechanism for granting compensation to the victims as
proposed for the rape victims.
The PIL said the closest section of IPC which can be used in
the cases of acid attacks are sections 329, 322 and 325 dealing with
grievous hurt, voluntarily causing grievous hurt and punishment for
grievous hurt. However, these sections are insufficient to deal with the
offence, it added.
