Bill to amend CrPC section hangs fire

PUNE, Nov 24: The fate of a proposed bill to amend Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code is hanging in balance due to the ongoing poli...

PUNE, Nov 24: The fate of a proposed bill to amend Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code is hanging in balance due to the ongoing political turmoil at the national capital, according to Union Minister for Law and Judiciary Ramakant Khalap.

Speaking to The Indian Express after attending a function here, Khalap remarked that he had proposed the amendment of Section 125 of the CrPC. The section empowers a first class Judicial Magistrate to order monthly compensation up to Rs 500 for maintenance of wives, children and parents’.

The section was last amended in 1955, to raise the monthly maintenance amount to Rs 500. Ever since, there has been no amendment to bring about adequate changes in the compensation amount.

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Khalap said his ministry had already prepared a bill amending the section and thereby making adequate changes in the compensation amount after omitting the said ceiling of Rs 500. “The law commission had proposed that the amount should be changed to Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 500. I, however, proposed that the compensation amount should be proportionate to the income of the husband. And the bill is ready with us now,” Khalap said.

Asked when he planned to table the bill, the minister said he would have tabled it in the winter session of the Parliament but…,” he left the sentence incomplete. He added that the bill would be soon tabled in the Parliament.