Anti-piracy Act has been a great enabler: Navy chief

Anti-piracy Act has been a great enabler: Navy chief

Subject: Polity

Section: Legislation in news

Context:

• The new Maritime Anti Piracy Act, enacted in 2022, has been a “great enabler”, and is one of the reasons why we have been successful, Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar said on the new law as the Indian Navy completed 100 days of ‘Operation Sankalp’.

More on news:

• Since mid-December, as part of Phase 2 of Operation Sankalp, the Indian Navy saw the deployment of over 5,000 personnel at sea, over 450 ship days (with over 21 ships deployed), and 900 hours of flying by the maritime surveillance aircraft to address threats in the maritime domain.
• The act  has empowered us to visit, board, search and seize. 
• Any suspicious vessel craft or fishing boat or dhow which we suspect, we board, inspect, and if we find piracy triggers like skiffs, weapons, ammunition, then we take action to ensure that they don’t proceed with their mission.
• There are very few countries which have an Act like this.
• In the last 100 days, as part of Operation Sankalp, the Navy has carried out over 1,000 boardings.
• Talking of a salient feature of the Act, maritime expert Pooja Bhatt said the Maritime Anti Piracy Act empowers the Indian Navy and Coast Guard to board, seize and arrest pirates operating in the high seas, in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and beyond, and Indian courts can prosecute the perpetrators with life imprisonment, fine, or both.
• The Act also considers the offense as extraditable, where India has signed such treaties with those countries.
• India has an agreement with Somalia where Somalian pirates have been extradited since 2017.
• An Act to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) relating to repression of piracy on the high seas and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• India ratified UNCLOS in 1995.

About Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill:

Short title, commencement and application.

• This Act may be called the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act, 2022.
• It shall come into force on such date1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
• The provisions of this Act shall apply to the high seas.

Meaning of Piracy:

“piracy” means:

• (i) any illegal act of violence or detention or any act of depredation committed for private ends by any person or by the crew or any passenger of a private ship and directed on the high seas against another ship or any person or property on board such ship;
• (ii) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship with knowledge of facts, making it a pirate ship;
• (iii) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in sub-clause (i).

Punishment for piracy:

• Whoever commits any act of piracy, shall be punished—
• (i) with imprisonment which may extend to imprisonment for life or with fine or with both; or
• (ii) with death or with imprisonment for life, if such person in committing the act of piracy causes death or an attempt thereof.

Jurisdiction of Designated Court:

• The Designated Court shall have jurisdiction to try an offense punishable under this Act where such offense is committed—
• (i) by a person who is apprehended by, or is in the custody of, the authorized personnel or the police, regardless of the nationality or citizenship of such person;
• (ii) by a person who is a citizen of India or a resident foreign national in India or any stateless person.