Sansad TV Perspective: Maritime Anti-Piracy Bill

Anchor: Teena Jha

1. Sujeet Kumar, MP, Rajya Sabha, BJD

2. Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (Retd), Former Head of India’s Western Naval Command

3. Alok Bansal, Director, India Foundation

Context: Maritime Anti-Piracy Bill has been passed by the Rajya Sabha.

Detail: 

Objective of the bill:

• The proposed bill aims to ensure maritime security and to provide protection for India’s economic well-being. It seeks to safeguard maritime assets on the high seas.

Need of the bill: 

• The security of sea lanes of communication is critical as more than 90 per cent of India’s trade takes place by sea routes and more than 80 per cent of the country’s hydrocarbon requirements were sea-borne.
• The Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) lacks any dedicated provision related to maritime piracy and threat to India’s security concern. 
• This bill would also enable India to discharge its obligation related to the UNCLOS which we had signed in 1982 and ratified in 1995.
• Between 2008 and 2011, there have been 27 maritime incidents in which 288 Indian nationals were involved. And between 2014 and 2022, there were 19 piracy cases in which 155 Indian crew members were involved. This data itself manifests how important this bill is. 

Provisions of the bill: 

• It enables Indian authorities to take preventive action against piracy on the high seas. 
• Definition of piracy: The Bill defines piracy as any illegal act of violence, detention or destruction against a ship, aircraft, person or property, for private purposes, by the crew or passengers of a private ship or aircraft.  
• Piracy also includes inciting and intentionally facilitating such acts of violence, and voluntarily participating in the operation of a pirate ship or aircraft.  
• Committing an act of piracy will be punishable with: 
  • life imprisonment; or 
  • death, if the act of piracy causes or seeks to cause death.  
• Participating, organising, aiding, supporting, attempting to commit, and directing others to participate in an act of piracy will be punishable by up to 14 years of imprisonment, and a fine.
• It applies to the sea beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), i.e., beyond 200 nautical miles from India’s coastline.
• The central government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court, may notify Sessions Courts as the Designated Courts under this Bill. 

What is Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

• An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a zone in the sea prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over which a country has certain rights.
• The exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial waters, and the limit of such a zone is two hundred nautical miles from the baseline.
• The country has a right to –
  • Explore and exploit, conserve and manage the natural resources (living or nonliving).
  • Produce energy from wind, currents and water.
  • Establish and use artificial islands, structures and installations.

Read more on Exclusive Economic Zones in the linked article.
Concerns related to the bill: 

• A person will be punished with the death penalty if he causes a death while committing piracy. This punishment is seen as a retributive form of punishment.
• The applicability of the bill stretched beyond the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This provision exaggerates India’s jurisdiction.

Read all the previous Sansad TV Perspective articles in the link.

Sansad TV Perspective: Maritime Anti-Piracy Bill:- Download PDF Here

Related Links
Montreal Protocol	Environmental protocols
Special Economic Zone	Biodiversity Conservation
Biodiversity Loss	Bonn Convention