On Sunday, Honorable President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the government ordinance regarding POCSO Act. This ordinance will strengthen the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as it is having a number of measures to amend in this Act.

The ordinance has core measure of ordering death penalty for rapists of girls below 12 years of age and stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape particularly of girls below 16 years.

Rigorous imprisonment in case of rape of women has also been increased from seven years to ten years and that can also be extended to life imprisonment.

In the ordinance, punishment for the gang rape of a girl less than 16 years has been prescribed as life imprisonment for the convict.

The central government has also suggested in this ordinance that there should be a time limit of six months for disposal of appeals in rape cases. Now, this needs to be passed by Parliament to be an approved law.