J&K Government has decided to reinforce the legal framework to curb instances of women being victimized by the persons in authority or in fiduciary relationships.“The existing legislative provisions have been found deficient to curb this menace and therefore, a need was felt to introduce such provisions in the relevant laws which would prevent occurrence of such instances and deter the persons in authority to abuse their authority, influence or position to obtain sexual favors from the weaker sex,” a spokesman of the state’s Law Department said in a statement issued here this evening.He said the Law Department has, accordingly, prepared draft Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill-2018 to amend provisions of Ranbir Penal Code, Samvat,1989(introduction of a new provision namely Section 354 E) and other necessary amendments in Criminal Procedure Code, Samvat, 1989 and Evidence Act, Samvat,1977.“Besides, Draft Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2018 has also been formulated to include acts of demanding and requesting sexual favors by public servants within the ambit of term ‘Misconduct’ under Section 5 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 2006,” he said and added that as a part of the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, draft the Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2018 have been made available on the website of the Law Department (www.jklaw.nic.in).He said a copy of the proposed amendments can also be obtained from the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Civil Secretariat, Jammu.The spokesman said that comments/ suggestions are invited from the Government Departments/ Institutions/ Bar Associations, Stakeholders, general public and other entities on these draft Bills. The last date for receipt of the comments/ suggestions is 5 December, 2018, he said and added that the comments/ suggestions can be sent by email in MS Word format to the email IDs: [email protected] and [email protected] subject of the e-mail, he said, should be “comments/ suggestions on draft the Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2018.“Alternatively, comments/ suggestions can also be sent by post or delivered by hand to: Achal Sethi, Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice &Parliamentary Affairs, Room No 5, Civil Secretariat, J&K Jammu or mailed at email ID: [email protected],” he said.