The Samasth Jain Samaj will soon file a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Rajasthan High Court’s judgment holding the practice of ‘santhara’ or ‘sallekhana’ as illegal, even as a nationwide protest will be organised on Monday.
Talking to presspersons here on Saturday, samaj’s district working president Rajeev Doddannavar and honorary secretary Rajendra Jain criticised the comparison of ‘santhara’ with the ‘sati’ system.
They said, under ‘santhara’, an individual voluntarily decides to “minimise the period between life and death under certain conditions by way of giving up food and water in declining proportions and then completely by which time the individual neither feels hungry nor thirsty till death by starvation.” They cited Jain scriptures to substantiate their claim that it was being practiced for thousands of years.
They also disapproved of the court equating ‘santhara’ with suicide and likened it to ‘swachha maran’ and not by coercion or imposed by someone else. “It is a matter of religious faith. But, many are not aware of in what circumstances an individual embraces ‘santhara’ as they have not looked into the Jain scriptures,” they said.
On Monday, members the Jain community will form a human chain at Rani Chennamma Circle in Belagavi and march to the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
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