Explained: Rajasthan Government’s ‘Dead Body Respect Bill’

Days after the brutal murder of four people from a family, the Rajasthan government passed the ‘Honor of Dead Bodies Bill’, which seeks to prevent protests with dead bodies and specifies punishment for the same. Significantly, the Jodhpur police on Wednesday recovered the charred bodies of four members of the same family from their house in Cherai village of Ramnagar gram panchayat of Osiya area of ​​Jodhpur. Family members including children were first murdered and then their bodies were set on fire.

What is the Honor of the Dead Body Bill?

The Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot passed the ‘Rajasthan Honor of Dead Bodies Bill, 2023’ yesterday. The controversial bill provides for punishment for those protesting with dead bodies. 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. Apart from this, now it has become illegal to perform with the dead body in the state. Any protest with a dead body can lead to imprisonment of up to five years.

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According to the bill, if the victim’s family does not claim the body, they will face a jail term of up to one year, along with a fine. If they choose to protest with a dead body or allow someone else to protest with a dead body, they can be imprisoned for up to two years and fined. The punishment for the third party gets tougher. If someone who is not a family member protests with the dead body, he can be punished with imprisonment of six months to five years, besides fine. So if a politician chose to protest with the institution, even to demand an investigation or compensation, they could face up to five years in prison. According to reports, the special thing about this bill is that it gives the dead body the ‘right to the last rites’.

BJP criticized Ashok Gehlot government

Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore criticized the Gehlot government and compared the bill to the Defense of India Act (DIR) and the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) brought during the Emergency.

Now in Rajasthan, costly laws are being made to crush the fight for the rights of the people.

If someone protested by bringing the dead body on the road for justice, then he would be jailed for 2 years, if the leader was involved then he would be jailed for 5 years… If the dead body was brought on the road for protest, then he would be jailed for 5 years.

Rajasthan… pic.twitter.com/fx9GlP69hQ– Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) 21 July 2023

BJP leader Amit Malviya said that the time has come for the last rites of the Congress government in Rajasthan. “Now brutal laws are being made in Rajasthan to crush the fight for people’s rights. If someone protests by keeping the dead body on the road for justice, he will be jailed for 2 years, if the leader is involved, he will There will be 5 years in jail… If the family refuses to take the body, it will be in jail for one year. The time has come for the ‘last rites’ of the Congress government in Rajasthan,” Malviya said.