The Cabinet on Sunday gave the final approval to the draft of the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to enact a law through parliament repealing a recent ordinance promulgated allowing death penalty alongside life term imprisonment as punishment for rape.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam made the statements while briefing journalists after the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.

The Cabinet meeting was held virtually with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The Prime Minister joined it through a videoconference from Ganobhaban, while other cabinet members got connected from the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated as Parliament was not in session at that time, Khandker Anwarul Islam.

“If an ordinance is promulgated in the absence of a Parliament session, it is to place the ordinance in Parliament on the very first day of the next session. So, what was brought in the format of an ordinance was placed in the Cabinet as the draft of an act,” he said.