The House of Representatives has endorsed a proposal to extend the statute of limitations on rape and sexual violence in the country’s criminal law. A meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Monday endorsed ‘A bill to amend some acts against sexual violence’ as proposed by the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the HoR. The endorsed bill amended the highly disputed statute of limitation on rape. According to Section 292 (2) of the National Penal Code, complaints of rape must be filed within one year from the date of the commission of crime if the survivor is an adult and within a year of the survivor turning into 18, if they are minor.
KATHMANDU, June 6: A meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) today unanimously approved a proposal seeking amendment of some laws related to sexual violence.
Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma Koirala had presented the proposal related to this in the meeting.
The Law Minister also responded to questions raised by the lawmakers following the general deliberation on the proposal.
He maintained that the government's serious attention was drawn towards the issues raised by MPs regarding the statute of limitations on offences related to sexual violence.
Minister Koirala said that the Nepal Law Commission has been urged to study the matter of statute of limitation from the day he assumed office and the required reforms would be made to this provision considering the Commission's report.
He added that the Commission has also been asked to consider the positive and negative consequences of increasing the statute of limitation. The Law Minister said the government was also serious so that none is deprived of justice because of the statute of limitation.
