The President has given his assent to the
Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2002, the Cable Television Networks
(Amendment) Bill, 2002, the Transfer of Property (Amendment) Bill,
2002 and the Indian Evidence (Amendment) Bill, 2002. With this,
these four Bills, passed during the Winter Session of Parliament
ending December 20, 2002, have been notified in the Gazette of
India as Act Nos. 1,2,3 and 4 respectively of the year 2003.
The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2003, which
seeks to amend the Companies Act, 1956, provides for a new, modern,
efficient and time bound Insolvency Law to provide for both rehabilitation
and winding up of sick companies within a timeframe of a maximum
of two years as against the existing system taking about 18 to
26 years. It envisages setting up of a National Company Law Tribunal
with several Benches to be notified by the Government all over
the country, appeal from its judgement before the National Company
Law Appellate Tribunal, taking over the jurisdiction of High Courts
in the matters of liquidation of sick companies, abrogation of
Company Law Board, repealing of the Sick Industries (Special Provisions)
Act, 1985 and dismantling of BIFR created thereunder, creation
of a corpus to be known as Rehabilitation Fund for taking care
of the workers of sick companies and their investors as per the
global standards in keeping with the norms of globalization of
Indian economy under the World Trade Organisation regime. The
Government will implement this Act from a date to be notified
by the Department of Company Affairs in stages.
The Cable Television Networks (Amendment)
Act, 2003, which seeks to amend the Cable Television Networks
(Regulation) Act, 1995, provides for empowering the Government
with installation of affordable systems for viewing pay channels
of television programmes through notification in a phased manner,
free-to-air channels in the areas thus notified, to be continued
in the existing receiver sets without having to go through the
addressable systems, without requiring the subscribers to change
the receiving set irrespective of the channels that they wish
to receive and providing freedom of choice to subscribers to view
the channels from amongst those offered by the cable service providers,
flexibility for adoption of technological advancement and upgradation
in the addressable systems with a provision for the Bureau of
Indian Standards to lay down technical standards and performance
parameters of the systems, with the authority of the Government
to prescribe, from time to time, the maximum amount to be paid
by the subscriber to the cable service provider for the basic
service tier consisting of the bouquets of notified free-to-air
channels and to determine the number of channels to be included
in this tier and the maximum cost for the same in different States,
cities and areas of the country, from time to time. The Government
acquires effective power to enforce the amendments, violations
of which would constitute a cognizable offence. The amendments
are intended to enable the Government to protect the interest
of the consumers and save them from predatory exploitation by
cable service providers. The Act will come into force from a date
to be notified by the Government in the Ministry of Information
& Broadcasting.
The Transfer of Property (Amendment) Act,
2003, which seeks to amend the Transfer of Property Act, 1882,
provides that the period of notice regarding transfer of property
shall commence from the date of its receipt and the amendment
will apply to the pending suits or proceedrings and notices issued
before the commencement of this amendment. It is intended to remove
doubts and confusions under Section 106 of the Transfer of Property
Act. This is also designed to help the courts expedite disposal
of cases relating to transfer of property. The amendment follows
the Supreme Court judgement in Mangilal Vs. Sugan Chand AIR, 1965
SC 101, 104 and the recommendations of the Law Commission of India.
It has come into force with immediate effect.
The Indian Evidence (Amendment) Act, 2003,
which seeks to amend the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, provides for
deletion of clause 4 of Section 155 by specifically providing
in Section 146 that in a prosecution for rape or attempt to commit
rape, it will not be possible to put questions in the cross examination
of the prosecutrix as to her general immoral character. This follows
the recommendations of the Law Commission of India and the National
Commission for Women. It has been observed that the defence counsels
usually refer to prior sexual conduct of the complainant in their
pleadings for demolishing her testimony that she did not consent,
thus tarnishing the reputation and chances of marriage of the
complainant. This women friendly amendment is intended to protect
the individual honour and dignity of woman from being tarnished
in the courts of law during the trial of rape or attempted rape
cases. This amendment has come into force with immediate effect.
