Maharashtra to review Shakti Bill on crimes against women and children

We will now review the Bill and bring it back with necessary amendments, if required Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Amidst outrage over the Pune rape case, the Maharashtra government is slated to review its own Shakti Bill, which was passed by the Maharashtra legislature in 2021 to mandate stringent action for crimes against women and children. The Bill has been pending for the President’s assent.

“Shakti Bill was a Bill which had reworked several existing legal provisions then. Union Home department had sent a few objections saying that the judgements of the [Supreme] court were also overstepped. The State has no right to do so. There was a need to make a few changes in it. But before we could make the changes, the Centre brought in new laws. These laws have amalgamated most of the provisions we had given in our Bill. So we will now review the Bill and bring it back with necessary amendments, if required,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday (February 28, 2025).

The Shakti Criminal Laws (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill was passed by both the Houses in December 2021. The Bill sought stringent punishment for heinous crimes against women and children. It had sought the death penalty for crimes like rape, gang rape, causing grievous hurt, and penetrative sexual assault of a child under 16 years.

‘Long overdue’

But the Opposition slammed the government for the delay in bringing in the legislation. Former State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that the Bill was long overdue, and that the government should work to get the President’s assent for it.

The recent Pune rape case has revived the discussion around the need for a stringent law in the State, with the Opposition demanding that the State government act swiftly. However, the review is likely to take longer as government sources indicated that most of the provisions in the Shakti Bill are now a part of the new legal framework of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, the new penal code which replaced the Indian Penal Code, and came into effect last year.