Cabinet gives nod to Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014

The Union cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given nod to for introduction of the comprehensive Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014 in the Parliament. The Cabinet has also given its approval to ratify Beijing Protocol, 2010 of the UN body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to which India is a signatory.
Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014 proposes

• Death punishment for the offence of the hijacking, where such offence results in the death of a hostage or of a security personal.
• Imprisonment for life and the confiscation of moveable and immoveable property d of persons involved in hijacking.

The current law, the Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982, which was last amended in 1994, will be repealed after passage of this new Bill.

Background

It was felt necessary for providing death penalty award to perpetrators of the act of hijacking in the wake of the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 in December 1999.
It was also necessary to amend current Indian hijacking act after the incident of 9/11, in the US where aircraft were used as weapons.
The Anti-Hijacking (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August 2010. It was introduced during the process of amendment of a global diplomatic conference on anti-hijacking which was held at Beijing in August-September, 2010.
Beijing Protocol: This Protocol has brought out new principal offences in hijacking. This protocol is combined with ancillary offences, enlarged the scope of ‘hijacking’, expanded jurisdiction and strengthened extradition and mutual assistance regimes in case hijacking.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2014