Overview Of Maritime Anti-Piracy Act Which Bharat Constituted In 2022 & How The Act Has Been A Great Enabler In Operation Sankalp

Hello, Everyone!

Recent years have witnessed numerous piracy attacks at the Indian Ocean waters ranging from the eastern coast of Africa to the coastal regions of Bharat. However, our country's Navy fleets and Coast Guard have been proactively engaged in forging dedicated strategies against Maritime Piracy but the lack of strict anti-piracy law has stymied the approach towards management of such illicit criminal acts.

Therefore to enforce the effective handling of sea crimes and to constitute the United Nations Convention On The Law Of Sea(UNCLOS)which is a dedicated law for putting restraint on maritime piracy activities committed at the seas and for the related concerns, Bharat sanctioned it in the year 1995 and constituted in 2022.

So in this blog post, we will be zeroing into the need for UNCLOS and its essential aspects as per the context. Let's now delve into the nuances of the concept without further ado.

Why there has been calling for legislating the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act in 2022:-

Several pointers have been directed to put into effect the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act, of 2022.

Some of the pointers are:

1. Implementing International Treaty:-

Regardless of Bharat being a signatory of the United Nations Convention On The Law Of Sea (UNCLOS) consented by the United Nations on 10 Dec 1982; our country accorded the law in 1995. However; there has been a dearth of our country's naval strategies for combatting and managing piracy attacks.

2. Managing Insufficient Legal Framework Against Pirate Attacks:-

The situation of charging sea criminals so far has come across insufficiency in the legal framework due to the absence of national law. Earlier sea criminals would be charged as per the laws outlined in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which is the official criminal code of our country; concerning armed robbery such as the criminals would be brought to the court caught by the country's Naval fleets and the coast guard but this had not proved to be an efficient way to counter piracy and other related illegal acts. We can observe this matter in the following example- A gang of Indonesian pirates was caught by the Indian Coast Guard in the Arabian Sea and they were prosecuted/in our country's district court in Bombay for various criminal charges outlined by the Indian Penal Code but unfortunately the Bombay High Court had withdrawn all the charges and the pirates were set free of the trails in April 2005.

3. Frequent Pirate Attacks:-

Since 2008; there have been frequent cases of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden that were functioning from Somalia. The Gulf of Aden has played a pivotal role in sea trade since monthly 2000 ships navigate through this route with trade goals between Asia, Europe, and the east coast of Africa. Today with the deployment of maritime officers in the Gulf of Aden the pirates have relocated their function toward the western coasts of our country which is a potential threat to our coastal areas.

Therefore these pointers call for an expedited constitutioning of the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act,2022.

Now let us focus on key aspects of the anti-piracy act,2022:

In The Context Of The Law Piracy Means:

1.This law is operational to the "high seas" which implies special economic zones of any other country including that of our country, as well as all seas, be it falling under the authority of any country.

2. According to this law; piracy implies violence, keeping someone hostage, or theive one's assets from another ship or any individual present on the ship.

3. If someone by his will volunteers to operate a ship regardless of having acquittance that it is a ship of the pirates then that individual is also held responsible for the piracy act.

4. Any act of backing piracy or doing something that promotes piracy; such as cooperating with them by giving them funds, supplies or materials to promote sea piracy is also an illegal and punishable offense under piracy.

What Does A Pirate Ship Implies According To This Law:-

According to this law, a pirate ship implies a ship intentionally used for piracy activities; furthermore, the law entails any aircraft, or seaplanes that can be deployed at the sea for committing piracy activities.

What Does Punishment Mean According To This Law:-

Anyone committing piracy will be Punished :

->Being jailed which can be for a lifetime or to give money as a penalty or both; OR

->Being jailed for a lifetime or a death; if committing piracy leads to the death of someone or trying to kill someone

->The property of the guilty involved in the piracy acts; will be seized

->Getting engaged in piracy leads to a jail term of 10 years or with a monetary penalty or both

->Getting involved in piracy acts or engaging others in piracy or instructing or directing someone to do piracy leads to a punishment of 14 years of jail or a monetary penalty or both

An Executing Body Responsible For Carrying Out Punishment--Implementing Authority

->Central Government grants legal rights to make arrests, examine, and bring to trials -as are accessible by a police officer outlined as per the Code Of Criminal Procedure

->The authorized person on suspicion can arrest or seize the ship deployed for piracy purposes

->The court once orders for the handling or dealing with the seized ship or property which implies selling auctioning or transferring ownership then only the proceedings can happen.

->The handling or dealing with the seized ship or property spans either selling, auctioning, or even transferring ownership; only at the discretion of the court.

Decisive Authority According To This Law Is-->Who Can Be The Designated Court:

For a seamless trial of the offenses; the Central Government after discussion with the Chief Justice of the appropriate High Court shall allocate by issuing a notification; to the designated court to prosecute the pirate criminals. In a specific state, a single or more district courts can be the designated court in line with this act.

The geographical area over which the court decides:-

Regardless of whether the accused is our country's citizen or of another country, the court shall possess the right to handle cases of the accused caught by the designated person or law enforcement officers.

However; the court does not have the authority over warships and government-owned ships operated for non-profit purposes.

Now let us focus on the preassumption of the accused according to the act.

Preassumption Of The Accused According To Act:

1 . The decisive authority shall suppose the accused person has committed an offense unless that person is proven to be innocent. This is referred to as the preassumption of guilt.

2. According to the act the prosecutor must be a public prosecutor selected to work by the code of criminal procedure.

The Bail Conditions According To The Act--> These are the conditions on which the accused will be released on a temporary basis while waiting for the prosecution:

An accused will be released temporarily only on certain conditions only when:

1.The public prosecutor has had the opportunity to object to the bail application

2.If the public prosecutor objects to the release application, but the designated court is certain that there is enough proof in favor of the accused and after the release, on bail, the accused will not do misdeeds.

These conditions do not overrule the exclusive bail authority of the High Court by section 439 of the code.

Now before moving further with the blog post let's first understand the meaning of Extraditable Offenses. These are the offenses committed in one country but for the trials, the accused may be called upon in some other country to be prosecuted in front of the court. This provision depends on the trust of the other country such as an extradition treaty.

Now let us discuss what are the extradition provisions as per Maritime Piracy Act 2022.

What Are The Extradition Provisions As Per Maritime Piracy Act 2022:

->Offenses as per this law are extraditable depending on our country's extradition provision treaties with other countries.

->In the absence of any extradition provision treaty, extradition provisions rely on the mutual agreement between our country and other countries to be treated equally. This implies if another country gives certain provisions to our country, then our country too will return the gesture and give the same privileges to the other country.

->Adhering to the Extradition Act 1962, if the ship deployed for piracy is registered in another country; then the ship is considered under the administration of another country.

->The authorized personnel will not be charged with legal actions because of any actions taken on honesty and sincerity; without any bad intentions of harm and deception referred to as " in good faith".

->The central government and state government will also be secured or excluded from any legal action resulting from any actions "taken in good faith".

Now we will focus on Operation Sankalp in whichnthe anti piracy act played a pivotal role.

What is Operation Sankalp:-

Operation Sankalp is our country's Naval Operation to protect our national ships registered under our national flag, and operate within our country's authority; navigating through the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf or called the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden comprising of Indian Ocean extending from Arabian Peninsula and the African Continent.

It was initiated on 19 June 2019 to counter strained maritime environment when strain was observed between Iran and US near Gulf of Oman; and piracy attacks which were quite prevalent ; specifically in trade routes. This was done by stationing our country's naval ships for surveillance,keeping a tight vigil ,safegauring ships used for transporting cargo or passengers and not for military or govenmental use, addressing the warning signal and repression of any dangers such as maritime piracy or maritime terrorism.

The operation also entails cowork with other country's naval security forces to promote peace and protected environment along the oceanic regions.

The Operation Sankalp was put into effect on 14 Dec 2023 when a Malta ship MV Ruen was seized ; and on 23 March 2024 the 100 days of the ongoing operations were completed.

Operation Sankalp to free captivated Malta Ship

Pic Source:https://www.thestatesman.com/india/indian-navys-operation-sankalp-safeguarding-indias-maritime-trade-routes-1502966669.html

Key Navy Ships Which Played A Pivotal Role In Operation Sankalp:-

->Operation Sankalp has observed many ships of our counytry which extends involvement of INS Chennai and INS Sunayna.

How Did Maritime Anti-Piracy Act Contributed To Operation Sankalp:-

Operation Sankalp

->35 pirates were apprehended and given to Mumbai Police as per the Maritime anti-piracy act.

->Crew of MV Ruen were again deployed and the falg of Malta has been hoisted.

->Operation Sankalp in Gulf of Aden witnessed engagement of about 5,000 sea personnel, 21 ships were used , and 900 hours of flying vigilance aircraft were observed of the maritime operations at Gulf of Aden,Arabian Sea and the East of Somalia.

->18 incidents were being counteracted by Bharat's navy and played role of first responder and preferred security partner in the Indian Ocean.

->110 people were rescued which includes 45 sailors.

->1.5 tonnes of essential belongings were freed

Thus conclusively we can say that Maritime Anti-Piracy Act effectively helps repress piracy attacks and enables efficient handling of the criminals.

Thank You.