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Tuesday, Apr 06, 2004

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Women's groups to move court over Sati verdict

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, APRIL 5. The women's organisations of Rajasthan today announced that they would shortly move a public interest writ petition in the Rajasthan High Court challenging a judgment of the special court on Sati prevention which had recently acquitted all the 11 accused in four cases of glorification of the infamous Roop Kanwar's Sati incident in 1987.

The accused who were let off includes Pratap Singh Khachariawas -- nephew of the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and former president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha -- who has now joined Congress and has been fielded as the party's candidate from Jaipur for the Lok Sabha elections.

The women's groups, acting under the banner of the Mahila Atyachar Virodhi Jan Andolan, have decided to file the public interest litigation (PIL) petition following the State Government's failure to prefer an appeal in the High Court against the verdict within the stipulated period of 60 days. The time limit expired on March 31 last.

Roop Kanwar's death on the funeral pyre of her husband in Deorala village of Sikar district in September 1987 had triggered a wave of protests by the women's and civil rights bodies, compelling the State Government to promulgate an Ordinance outlawing the medieval practice. The Centre followed suit and enacted the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.

Even though the newly framed law prohibited the glorification of Sati, the supporters of Sati organised a large number of rallies in Jaipur, Sikar and Alwar, in praise of Roop Kanwar and the practice of Sati with the participants carrying swords and chanting provocative slogans. Police registered 22 cases regarding glorification of Sati in the three districts.

The trial in the special court began only in June 2003 after a 16-year-long legal battle going up to the Supreme Court and the 11 accused in four of the cases were acquitted on January 31 last. Meanwhile, all the accused in the case of alleged murder of Roop Kanwar were also let off by a sessions court in Neem Ka Thana in 1996. The appeal against that judgment is yet to come up for hearing in the High Court even after eight years.

Though the women's organisations tried to exert pressure on the State Government during the past two months for filing an appeal against the verdict in the glorification cases, the Government neither responded to their plea nor moved the appeal. The women's bodies organised two massive demonstrations here on February 5 and March 3 to put forth the demand and shot off a number of letters to the Government, but to no avail.

"The BJP-led Government has exhibited its pro-Sati and anti-women stance by not challenging the verdict in the High Court. This is typical of a party that professes its faith in the Hindutva ideology,'' Laad Kumari Jain, president of the Rajasthan University Women's Association, told reporters here. She said it was a severe setback to all progressive movements in the State with a strong feudal background.

The women's groups regretted that the ruling party was showing its bias against women despite the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, being a woman. "Ms. Raje is following the footsteps of her mother, Vijaya Raje Scindia, who had led several rallies supporting Sati. She herself described Jhunjhunu town as the land of Sati in a rally held there recently,'' Kavita Srivastava, State general secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, pointed out.

The decision of Congress to field Mr. Khachariawas as the party's candidate in Jaipur also came in for sharp criticism by the women's organisations. "Congress has shown its senselessness by projecting Mr. Khachariawas as the leader of the masses. It proves that the basic character of both BJP and Congress is the same. Both are against women,'' Ms. Jain said.

The move to challenge the special court's verdict through the PIL in the High Court has been guided by several pronouncements of the Supreme Court accepting the locus standi of a third party in the matters of public importance. The most prominent of the apex court's recent moves was in connection with the Best Bakery case of Gujarat, admitting the writ petition of the National Human Rights Commission.

"In our writ petition, we will urge the High Court to either exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to secure the ends of justice or order retrial in the glorification cases,'' Prem Krishna Sharma, State president of PUCL and a noted lawyer, said. The plea for transferring the cases outside Rajasthan for retrial may also be made later, he added.

The organisations represented in the Mahila Atyachar Virodhi Jan Andolan include the Janwadi Mahila Samiti, Mahila Punarwas Samooh, PUCL, Rajasthan University Women's Association, Samajik Vidhi Adhyayan Akademi, Vishakha, Vividha and All India Progressive Women's Association.

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