Bengal Assembly passes landmark anti-lynching Bill

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee speaking at a rally on the occasion of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad Foundation Day, in Kolkata on August 28.

On August 30, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly passed a landmark Bill unopposed—The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019. The Bill defines lynching as “any act or series of acts of violence or aiding, abetting or attempting an act of violence, whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity or any other ground.”

While speaking on the Bill, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “The Central government should have brought a law against it (lynching). But they are yet to do so. So we are bringing this law in our State to fight against this social evil.” She also urged the Centre and other State governments to pass similar legislation.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill points to recent “trends towards mob lynching in different parts of the country”, and says, “Therefore, it is proposed to nip the evil in the bud and to prevent spreading hatred or incitement to mob lynching by creating special offences against such mob lynching.” The Bill also provides for death sentence in case of the death of a victim: “Where the act leads to the death of a victim (whoever commits an act of lynching), shall be punished with death sentence… with fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees and may extend to five lakh rupees.”

In a case where the victim suffers hurt, the punishment may extend to three years of imprisonment, and in case of grievous hurt even imprisonment for life.

While both the Congress and the Left parties joined the Trinamool Congress in supporting the Bill, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) neither supported nor opposed it. “The provisions laid down in this Bill will be used to target opposition parties, and even normal clashes will be termed as lynching, citing the provisions here,” said BJP MLA Swadhin Sarkar.

Referring to a similar law in Manipur, Ali Imran Ramz of the All India Forward Bloc, suggested that there should also be a provision to punish those police personnel who, though present at the scene of a lynching, do not take steps to stop the crime. The West Bengal law also provides for the appointment of a Nodal Officer to “monitor and coordinate prevention of lynching.” The State government will also compensate victims of lynching as per the West Bengal Lynching Compensation Scheme, which is yet to be framed.