Madhya Pradesh cabinet clears law to recover damages to properties from rioters: All you need to know about legislation

The BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh Cabinet gave approval to the draft of a bill, which seeks to punish those who damage public and private properties. State home minister Narottam Mishra confirmed the same, saying that the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday had given its nod to the proposed draft of Madhya Pradesh Lok Evam Niji Sampati Ka Nuksan Nivaran Evam Nusksani Ki Vasuli (Redressal and Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Properties) Bill 2021. The Bill will be introduced in the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha, starting from 20 December. Mishra said that once the proposed Bill becomes a law, it would pave the “path for recovery of damages caused to public and private properties from the protesters who caused the damages and from those who provoked protesters for causing the damage”. Provisions of the proposed Bill The Bill contains a provision for constituting a Claims Tribunal to determine the compensation for the damages. The claims tribunal will be headed by a retired district judge or a retired secretary of the state government According to Mishra, the tribunal will have all the powers of a civil court and will have all the powers of a civil court for the purpose of taking evidence on oath and enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling the discovery and production of documents and material objects. The Tribunal would also have the power to attach the property of respondents and publicise their names, addresses and photographs to warn the public against purchasing the property. The proposed Bill also provides for the tribunal to award compensation up to the extent of two times of actual damage. According to the draft of the MP Bill, during a trial, once the prosecution succeeds in proving that public property was damaged in direct actions called by an organisation in which the accused also participated, the court can draw a presumption that the accused is guilty of destroying public property too. The award passed by the claim tribunal will be recovered from those who are held directly responsible for damaging properties and even from those who are found guilty of abetment for damaging properties. Within 15 days of award, if it is not paid, it will be recovered with interest. The Bill is focused on those indulging in communal riots, hartals, protests and those who take out rallies during which property is damaged. Following in Haryana and UP’s footsteps Madhya Pradesh isn’t the first state to come up with such a legislation. Uttar Pradesh, run by Yogi Adityanath, and Haryana, headed by Manohar Lal Khattar, have similar legislation in place. The UP government came out with an ordinance titled “Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property Act 2020” which was cleared by its Assembly in March 2021. The ordinance was issued in the midst of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The UP law also empowers the state government to set up tribunals to decide claims for damage to property. The UP law also states once the parties are heard, the tribunal is required to give its orders within one year (and preferably within three months) directing the amount of compensation to be paid. It also states that all orders passed by the tribunals will be final and cannot be appealed before any court. Haryana in May 2021 followed suit with the enactment of The Haryana Recovery of Damages to Property During Disturbance to Public Order Act, 2021. The law allows the authorities to recover compensation for damage caused to both public and private properties. It states that “any person leading, organizing, planning, exhorting, instigating, participating or committing such incidents that lead to damages” is liable to pay compensation. The legislation was ferociously opposed by the Congress, with Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda saying the bill violates various Supreme Court judgments on the subject. He demanded a rollback of the bill. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.