Lok Sabha Passes Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019

The Lok Sabha has passed the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019 which is brought to fill the lacuna in laws against offence of piracy, primarily prevalent in the western coast of India.

Currently, India does not have a separate domestic legislation on piracy and provisions of IPC pertaining to armed robbery are invoked to prosecute pirates apprehended by Indian Coast guards.

As per the Statement of Objects annexed to the bill, in the absence of any specific law relating to the offence of maritime piracy in India, problems are being faced in ensuring effective prosecution of the pirates.

The Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee in December 2019. It was proposed with official amendments by the Government in July 2022.

The proposed anti-piracy legislation will apply to all parts of the sea adjacent to and 200 nautical miles beyond the limits of Exclusive Economic Zone of India. Special Courts will be designated/ established for speedy trial of these cases. Offences under this Act will be deemed extraditable.

As per the Bill, piracy means any illegal act of violence, detention or depredation against a ship, aircraft, person or property, for private purposes, by the crew or passengers of a private ship or aircraft.

External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said that the act of piracy on high seas will be an offence punishable with imprisonment for life or with death.

Participating, organising, aiding, supporting, attempting to commit, and directing others to participate in an act of piracy will be punishable with up to 14 years of imprisonment.

It is significant to note that Section 3 of the Bill provides that if a pirate causes death or makes an attempt to cause death, he shall be punished with death penalty. Many members of the House raised concerns over this provision.

Raising concerns on the penalty prescribed, Congress MP Manish Tewari said that even Indian Penal Code does not permit death sentence where an attempt has been made which might result in causing death. "Is Government trying to create new jurisprudencr through this law which can later be extrapolated to other criminal laws whereby you are proposing that even offence of attempting to commit murder will be punishable with death?"

Tiwari also expressed his objection the proviso to Section 9 of the Bill which ousts jurisdiction of Indian courts where an offence is committed on board a foreign ship, unless the law enforcement agency or the public authority of the port or place, where the ship is located, has been requested to intervene by the concerned State whose flag the ship is entitled to fly or by the owner of the ship or its master or any other person on board the ship.

"This has very profound implications…if there is a ship on high sea on which an attempt of piracy is made and there are Indian crewmen on board that ship and there are unfortunate casualty and Indian navy responds to it and takes them into custody, is Government trying to say because ship is flying a foreign flag, irrespective of fact that Indian nationals may have been hurt in the process, designated court will not have authority to try that offence? ...If there are Indian nationals and we are putting in place a legal architecture with regard to piracy, it should extend to every ship which has Indian officers/ crewmen on board"

Significantly, the Bill provides for presumption of guilt of accused in case certain conditions are satisfied, for example recovery of arms and ammunitions from possession of the accused, evidence of use of force in connection with offence, etc.

Members said extradition of accused may be difficult due to this provision.

"This is not the only law, even Prevention of Corruption Act shifts burden of proof. However, when you are talking about piracy, you are also implicitly talking about cooperation with other countries. If presumption is shifted on accused and accused has to be extradited from a third country, that country will not extradite an accused who is already proven to be guilty till the time he doesn't prove himself to be innocent. This is actually going to become detrimental to larger international cooperation to combat piracy…" Tiwari said.

BJD MP Bhartuhar Mahtab said that it violates the Supreme Court's decision in Mithu case where it was held that mandatory death penalty for any offence is unconstitutional and violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. He added, "Offences in sections 4 and 5 seem to be similar and it is unclear which penalties will apply in which circumstances"

He also spoke about issues regarding geographical applicability of the Bill. "Controversies exist over overlapping jurisdiction of territorial waters, i.e. 12 nautical miles and EEZ i.e. 200 nautical miles"

NCP MP Supriya Sule pointed that the Bill is silent about potential cyber attacks on the vessel.