New Delhi, March 23: Parliament Wednesday passed a bill to amend the Repatriation of Prisoners Act to replace the words “martial law” with “military law”, as the government said the former is not relevant in the Indian context.
The act, which provides for transfer of certain prisoners from India to other countries and to India from abroad, came to force in 2004.
“It is proposed to substitute the words ‘martial law’ of the aforesaid act with the words ‘military law’, as the expression ‘martial law’ is not relevant in the current Indian context,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha.
“This expression occurred in the aforesaid act due to oversight at the time of passing the bill in 2003 which needs to be corrected,” he said.
The members, during the brief discussion on the bill, raised concerns over Indian prisoners in countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka and sought the bill to be further amended to facilitate their return.
The home minister, however, said the act in itself had limited scope as it applied only to prisoners and not the undertrials and applies only to countries with which India has a treaty.
“The act will apply only if prisoner applies, many don’t apply. If the sentence is short like three months or six months, they don’t apply as the procedure takes longer. Only prisoners who have long term apply,” he said.
“We have repatriated five British prisoners after this law became operational and agreements have been signed, and one more is under consideration. We have brought back 12 Indian prisoners from Mauritius, and three more are in the process,” he said.
The amendment was later passed through a voice vote. It was passed by the Lok Sabha March 1.
According to the home ministry, so far India has signed treaties for prisoner exchange with Britain, Mauritius, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Bangladesh, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Iran. Negotiations have concluded with Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, Brazil and Italy.
-Agencies