The Times Of India

Allows Jains To Give Up Life By Not Taking Food

• Times of India Mumbai edition
• 1 Sep 2015
• Dhananjay.Mahapatra @timesgroup.com

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday took less than 60 seconds to stay the Rajasthan High Court judgment which branded Jainism’s centuries-old ‘Santhara or Sallekhana’ custom as attempt to suicide warranting prosecution under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

Members of Jain community had filed a couple of petitions challenging the August 10 HC ruling and lined up a bevy of senior advocates - A M Singhvi, Harish Salve and Gopal Subramaniam - to advance arguments to convince the SC that the constitutionally guaranteed right to profess a religion included practising its tenets, traditions and customs.

The challenge to the judgment in the SC said no illegality or criminality was associated with Santhara as it was “simply a Jain way of mastering the art of dying as much as the act of living”

The army of legal experts did not have to fire at all. The moment the petitions were called for hearing, a bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy dictated the order staying the HC judgment and issued notice to the petitioners, on whose plea the HC had banned Santhara.

Importantly, the court after staying the HC order admitted the appeals.