V
V.Balasubramani
Guest
Rajasthan HC declares Jain fast-unto death
practice illegal, does it contradict religious choice?
Image source: Screenshot of a person observing Santhara, Rajesh Jain/YouTube
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It was 2006. 60-year-old Bimla Devi Bansali of Jaipur had been suffering from terminal cancer of the brain and liver. The Jain woman decided to perform the community's centuries-old tradition Santhara- of fasting unto death. After a fast for 13 days, she breathed her last.
The same year Nikhil Soni, a lawyer in the Rajasthan High Court, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) equating the practice with suicide.
Almost nine years later, on Monday, the Rajasthan High Court banned the practice, calling it unconstitutional and stating that it is "not an essential tenet of Jainism". Anyone practicing or supporting a person practicing it will be punishable under sections 309 and 306 of the IPC respectively.
Treading on a rather precarious path, the government has been caught in a conflict to protect two rights- Right to life and right to freedom of religion- which contradict each other on some level.
A spate of Santhara deaths, including Bimla Devi's at that time, is said to have sparked off a nationwide debate about the practice and its possible misuse.
See more at: http://www.thenewsminute.com/articl...-it-contradict-religious#sthash.zaQ72qNs.dpuf
practice illegal, does it contradict religious choice?
Image source: Screenshot of a person observing Santhara, Rajesh Jain/YouTube
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was 2006. 60-year-old Bimla Devi Bansali of Jaipur had been suffering from terminal cancer of the brain and liver. The Jain woman decided to perform the community's centuries-old tradition Santhara- of fasting unto death. After a fast for 13 days, she breathed her last.
The same year Nikhil Soni, a lawyer in the Rajasthan High Court, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) equating the practice with suicide.
Almost nine years later, on Monday, the Rajasthan High Court banned the practice, calling it unconstitutional and stating that it is "not an essential tenet of Jainism". Anyone practicing or supporting a person practicing it will be punishable under sections 309 and 306 of the IPC respectively.
Treading on a rather precarious path, the government has been caught in a conflict to protect two rights- Right to life and right to freedom of religion- which contradict each other on some level.
A spate of Santhara deaths, including Bimla Devi's at that time, is said to have sparked off a nationwide debate about the practice and its possible misuse.
See more at: http://www.thenewsminute.com/articl...-it-contradict-religious#sthash.zaQ72qNs.dpuf
