JAMMU: Hailing from Jammu, a Law student of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar National Law University, Sonepat has raised a flaw in the Indian Penal Code in reference to the legal validity of Section 18 in the newly carved Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Terming it’s a major goof up, Vansh Sharma, a second year law student of DBRANLU said that after the enactment of J&K Reorganization Act, 2019, 153 acts of erstwhile J&K State were repealed bringing the applicability of Central Acts of law in J&K while retaining some of the locals acts.
However, the Parliament through Act only amended Section 1 of the IPC and missed to amend Section 18 of the same Act which says “India”- “India” means the territory of India excluding the State of J&K.
Urging the Ministry of Law and Justice, GoI, to rectify this error, Vansh in a letter highlighted that as per definition of India in Section 1 of IPC, it still excludes J&K from its territory which is contradictory and in future may cause a conflict between them.
Further elaborating in support of its surmise on the issue, he said “Section 2 of IPC talks about punishment for commission of the act committed within India and thus, if the word ‘India’ taken into consideration as per section 18 of IPC, it will be applicable on citizens of the country but the same would not applied on a foreigner or alien enemy who is not a citizen of India but commit offence within the territory of J&K