Days after the brutal killing of four people of a family, the Rajasthan government passed ‘Honour Of Dead Body Bill’ that seeks to curb protests with dead bodies and specifies punishment for the same. Notably, the Jodhpur police recovered the charred bodies of four family members from their home in the Cherai village in the Ramnagar Gram Panchayat of Osia area in Jodhpur on Wednesday. The family members including children were first murdered and then their bodies were set afire.
What Is Honour Of Dead Body Bill?
The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government yesterday passed ‘The Rajasthan Honour of Dead Body Bill, 2023’. The controversial bill specifies punishment for protests with a dead body. The bill makes it mandatory for the victim’s family to claim the body at the earliest. In case of their refusal, the bill empowers the district administration to seize the body and perform the last rites. Moreover, now protesting with a dead body has become illegal in the state. Any protest with a dead body will invite imprisonment for up to five years.
According to the bill, if the victim’s family does not claim the body, they will face punishment with imprisonment for up to one year along with a fine. If they choose to protest with a dead body or allow someone else to protest with the body, they might invite imprisonment for up to two years and a fine. The punishment gets severe for third parties. If someone is not a member of the family and protests with the body, they may get imprisonment between six months to five years besides a fine. So even if any politician chose to protest with the body even for demanding investigation or compensation, they may face jail terms of up to five years. According to reports, the key feature of the Bill is that it gives the ‘Right to last rites’ to the dead body.
BJP Slams Ashok Gehlot Government
Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore slammed the Gehlot government and compared the bill to the Defence of India Act (DIR) and Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) brought during the emergency.
BJP leader Amit Malviya said that the time has come for the last rite of Congress government in Rajasthan. “Now cruel laws are being made in Rajasthan to crush the fight for the rights of the people. If someone protests by keeping the dead body on the road for justice, then he will be jailed for 2 years, if the leader joins, then he will be jailed for 5 years… If the family refuses to take the dead body, he will be jailed for one year. The time has come for the ‘last rites’ of the Congress government in Rajasthan,” said Malviya.
Bureau Report
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