As the Centre termed Punjab’s amendments to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to give life imprisonment to sacrilege accused as “harsher punishment”, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has again written to Union home minister Amit Shah for getting the President’s assent on the two Bills that have been pending since 2018.
The Bills were passed during former chief minister Amarinder Singh’s tenure. The IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the CrPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, provided punishment up to life imprisonment to whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people.
These amendments were regarding insertion of Section 295AA to the IPC to provide that “whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life.”
These two Bills have since been waiting for Presidential assent. But before these bills could be sent to the President, the ministry of home has been writing to the state asking for clarifications.
Mann in a fresh letter to Shah on May 24 said, “Now we have received response from your ministry that the punishment proposed in the amendments appears to be excessive. In this context, I would like to bring to your kind notice that Guru Granth Sahib is considered living guru by Sikhs and is accorded respect accordingly,”.
{{/usCountry}}Mann in a fresh letter to Shah on May 24 said, “Now we have received response from your ministry that the punishment proposed in the amendments appears to be excessive. In this context, I would like to bring to your kind notice that Guru Granth Sahib is considered living guru by Sikhs and is accorded respect accordingly,”.
{{/usCountry}}The chief minister has further stated that it is extremely necessary to maintain communal harmony in Punjab and for this rigorous punishment is required to deter criminals trying to disturb communal harmony.
“So, I again request that the Presidential assent for the said Bills may kindly be given to the state government at the earliest,” said Mann.
This is the second letter written by Mann to the Union home minister. Earlier, the chief minister wrote a similar letter on December 8, 2022, to which the home ministry replied that the punishment amended for sacrilege seems excessive.
In an earlier communiqué to the previous state government, the Centre had asked Punjab if the state was sure that such harsher punishment could be given for sacrilege of holy books.
During his meeting with Shah in December last year as well, Mann had said that this amendment was in consonance with the principles of secularism enshrined in the Constitution. Mann wrote the letter after two sacrilege cases that shocked Punjab in April this year.
Recent sacrilege incidents
May 17, 2023: A youth was handed over to police after he allegedly entered a gurdwara in Rajpura town wearing shoes.
April 27, 2023: A man was arrested for desecrating Gutka Sahib at a Gurdaspur village.
April 24, 2023: A man arrested for sacrilege and hitting two priests at a gurdwara in Morinda. On the same day, a sacrilege incident was reported in Faridkot as well.
December 20, 2021: Youth hacked to death for ‘sacrilege’ in Kapurthala.
December 18, 2021: A man beaten to death by pilgrims at the Golden Temple in Amritsar after he allegedly stepped inside the central enclosure of the sanctum sanctorum where the holy book is placed.