EQUALITY IS NOT ENOUGH, ENSURING EQUITY IN ACID ATTACK LEGISLATION IN INDIA- BY A.SAJIDA MEERA RUMANA

INTRODUCTION
Recently, the movie named 'Chhapaak', based on the true story of the acid-attack survivor Lakshmi, was released. An alarming spate of memes and reactions were followed. One of the memes carried the poster of the movie, featuring Deepika Padukone as Lakshmi, with the caption – 'this could be you par tumaangyi' which translates to 'this could be you but you gave in (to my advances)'. More than an irresponsible behavior of certain anti-social elements, this seems to be a reflection of a wider, deeply ingrained sexist behavior that normalizes acid-attacks on women who decline a man's advances. The acid-attack laws in India have seen an interesting evolution. But in the course of this evolution, the distinct nature of acid-attacks in India as a form of gender violence. In urban Areas, there was a time when people use acid for household purpose but now the work of acid has reformed his way and used for destroying the life of people. Acid attack has its steep rise in past few years and as usual the most of the victim are women and only women. This lacuna in the law has garnered a lot of attention lately and has led to the introduction of a couple of bills in the parliament too. However, no corrective legislation has been adopted so far.

LEGISLATIVE EVOLUTION OF THE OFFENCE OF ACID ATTACK
The Law Commission of India in its 226^th Report dealt with this offence and noted that although offence can be perpetrated against both men and women, a specific gender dimension has been observed in India. There was no specific legislation dealing with acid-attacks before the Criminal Law Amendment Act (2013) was passed. The offence was registered as grievous hurt under Sections 320, 322, 325,326 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 326 deals with grievous hurt caused by a dangerous weapon or other means including any "corrosive substance". However, the grievous-hurt provisions fell short of doing justice to the multiple and peculiar forms of injuries inflicted on different parts of a female body in an acid-attack. Further, these sections didn't provide for an optimum compensation to the victim. There have been cases where no compensation this was specifically laid down in the case of RAM CHARITTAR & ANR ETC v. STATE OF U.P., Appeal (crl). 329 of 2006. In the case of GULAB SAHIBLAL SHAIKH v. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA, 1998 Bom cri 36, were compensation as low as Rs.1000 or Rs.5000was provided. The J.S.Verma Committee identified these lacunae and recommended that 'acid-attacks be made a specifically defined offence under IPC, and that the victim be compensated by the accused'. After the leading case of Laxmi v UOI, (2014) 4 SCC 427, the Hon’ble Supreme Court passed an order to put ban on selling of acid in shops. For preventing acid attacks, the Supreme Court has completely prohibited the counter sale of the chemical unless the seller maintains a recording of the address and other details of the buyer, and the quantum. Acid should not be sold to any person under 18 and all stocks must be declared with the local sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) within 15 days. Undeclared stocks could be confiscated and the defaulter fined up to Rs.50,000. Acid attack is now a non-bailable and cognizance Offence. Consequently, the 2013 amendment was passed adding two new sections, 326A and 326B, to the IPC. Section 326A criminalizes voluntarily causing grievous hurt through the use of acid with a minimum imprisonment of not less than ten years and Section 326B makes voluntarily throwing and attempting to throw acid on any person, a punishable offence, with minimum five years imprisonment. It is to be noted that both of these sections are gender-neutral. Justice N.V.Ramana, in Suresh Chandra v. The State of West Bengal, 2017 (6) Supreme 35, opined that inspite of bringing in this amendment, the number of acid-attack cases have been on the rise. He further observed that stringent laws and strong enforcement agencies would never be sufficient till the deep-rooted gender bias is not removed from the society. Though the J.S.Verma committee recognized that the offence has a gender specific and discriminatory nature towards women, none of the laws till date acknowledge the gendered aspect of this crime.

SHE, THE VICTIM: ACID ATTACK AS A FORM OF GENDER VIOLENCE 
The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and ratified by India in 1993. Under Article 1 of the CEDAW, 'discrimination against women' has been interpreted to include gender-based violence, which in turn is defined as "violence which is directed against a woman because she is a woman or which affects women disproportionately". By this definition, it becomes fairly easy to conclude that acid-attacks are in-fact a form of gender-based violence. The National Crime Record Bureau, in its 2015 statistics, reported that 72% of the victims were women. The largest chunk of acid-attacks has been perpetrated by spurned men and directed at women for rejecting love, marriage or sex proposals. A study conducted by UNICEF also reported that most of the victims of acid-attacks across the world are young girls who have rejected sexual advances or marriage proposals. Thus, it is amply clear that acid attacks are a form of gender violence and do not recognize this fact in legislation and place sole reliance on gender neutral provisions is to vouch for equality but not equity.
CONCLUSION 
An acid attack has long-lasting consequences on the life of the victim who faces perpetual torture, permanent damage and other problems for the rest of her life. Their living life becomes like a gutter; they become too traumatized and embarrassed to walk out of their house and carry out simple tasks. Even if they are willing to pursue a normal life, there is no guarantee that society itself will treat them as normal human beings given their appearance and disabilities after an attack. The Crime of an Acid attack is not on a small range, day by day the crime is increasing so the government should take appropriate action and make laws more stringent which actual will help the victim.