India gets tough on piracy

With the Indian Navy having arrested over 120 pirates in the last 12 months, the government in New Delhi has proposed tough new laws which will give the Navy and the coastguard more powers in dealing with the ever-growing problem with piracy.

Kindly India relies on its own people called and the Admiralty act as passed by Britain. Under the new legislation it is proposed to enable the UN Convention on laws of the sea (in the has previously ratified this convention), and define what piracy is, how it is to be processed in the Courts and outline the powers of both the movie and the coastguard.

Currently, as the UN Convention on laws of the sea is not enabled, there are substantial jurisdictional issues for the Indian Navy notwithstanding the activity being on the doorstep of India. On several occasions the Indian Navy have not arrested pirates as a result of these concerns.

In addition to the arrest referred to as above, the Indian Navy has prevented 30 other piracy attempts since 2008. In addition the Navy has safely escorted some 1600 ships and wrote should vessels through the strategic failure.

All of this demonstrates and highlight is the ever-growing problem of piracy as a result of the free reign that the Pirates have within Somalia.

Dermot Conway
CONWAYS SOLICITORS
contact Dermot at 0214901000 or dermot@conways.ie