Bill to give more power to Navy to deal with pirates

New Delhi: Reeling under criticism for its failure to deal with effectively with piracy as seen in the case of the recent Egyptian cargo vessel MV Suez , it seems that the government has finally woken up to the menace of piracy. In a move that will strengthen the powers of the Navy and Coast Guards to deal with pirates, the government announced its plans to introduce a bill to curb growing piracy on Indian waters. The Government is hoping to introduce the bill in the monsoon session of the Parliament. The bill would define the act of piracy, the people who will be termed as pirates, the courts of law which would try these pirates and the quantum of punishment to be given to the apprehended sea brigands. [caption id=“attachment_33153” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The MV Suez merchant ship incident and the failure of the Indian government to free the sailors had sparked off serious criticism of both the Navy and the Indian government. Reuters.”]  [/caption] The proposed legislation will establish piracy as a crime and lay the ground rules for dealing with it. Officials said, that in the current legal system piracy is dealt with under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and century-old Admiralty law. But it seems that these old Colonial laws are no longer comprehensive enough to deal with piracy in the present context and the government has realised the need for a separate law with separate provisions to effectively tackle the problem that takes place far away from Indian shores. Under the Bill, the Government is also planning to give more powers to the Navy and the Coast Guard to take on the pirates. Again under the current provisions, it is the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea that defines piracy. However there is a pressing need to adopt a domestic law on the subject. After the law comes into effect, they said, the Navy would be able to apprehend pirates in open seas and try them in the Indian courts. Various ministries including Defence, Shipping and External Affairs have given their suggestions for framing the proposed law. In the wake of increasing piracy incidents around India, the Navy and Coast Guard have strengthened their deployments off the Lakshadweep islands to keep the sea brigands at bay after they began operating in the region as well. The Navy has also warded off over 30 piracy attempts since it began deploying warships in the Gulf of Aden in October 2008. Indian warships have safely escorted over 1,600 ships and merchant vessels, of which only around 170 flew the Indian flag, through the strategic trade route since then. The government has also cleared more aggressive “rules of engagement” and standard operating procedures for Indian warships to take the battle to the pirates in non-hostage situations. PTI