Decoding The Judgement on Sallekhana Santhara of The Rajasthan High Court

Author(s): C Devkumar Jain
Publisher: C Devkumar Jain

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religious practice and the right of Jain to manage their own affairs in the matter of religion as guaranteed by Article 25, 26(b) and 29 of the Constitution.
It is an admitted case of the petitioner that the practice of Santhara is being followed as part of customary and religious practice. It is thus clear that Santhara is religious practice or ritual and as such can be performed as per religious tenets, usages and custom. Before appreciating upon the propriety of Santhara practice one has to understand the metaphysical ethical and social concepts of Jainism which are different from other religion. Jain metaphysics divides the Universe into eternally co-existing but independent, categories, One Jiva-the soul-second Ajiva-the non-soul. The body is the non-soul. Soul is the central theme in Jaina system. The ultimate goal of a human life in Jainism is the realization of the soul viz. Atma Darshan after its emancipation from the entanglement of non-soul of the body. 5. That the contents of Para (5) of the writ petition are emphatically denied.
6. That the contents of Para (6) of the writ petition appears to have been not interpreted properly. Under Section 309 IPC punishment has been provided for attempt to suicide. In a changing society, notions of what is objectionable have always been changing. A crime predominantly is dependent upon the policy of the State. It may be mentioned that some time back Law Commission in its report has recommended for abolition of Section 309 IPC. A Division Bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court had held Section 309 IPC as violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Though the said judgment of the Division Bench stands overruled but the Constitution Bench has recognized that the right to life including the right to live with human dignity would mean the existence of such a right up to the end of natural life which means right to a dignified life up to the point of death including a dignified procedure of death. In other words this may include the right of dying man to also die with dignity when his life is ebbing out.
7. It appears that the learned petitioner has not correctly appreciated the judgment of the Constitutional Bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Smt. Gyan Kaur Vs. State of Punjab (IT 1996(3) SC 339). The Supreme Court in Gyan Kaur has declared the law as under:
"A question may arise, in the context of a dying man, who is, terminally ill or in a persistent vegetative state that he may be permitted to terminate it by a premature extinction of his life in those circumstances. This category of cases may fall within the ambit of the 'right to die' with dignity as a part of right to live with dignity, when death due to termination of natural life is certain and imminent and the process of natural death has commenced. These are not cases of extinguishing life but only of accelerating conclusion of the process of natural death which has already commenced. The debate even in such cases to permit physician-assisted termination of life is inconclusive. It is sufficient to reiterate that the argument to support the view of permitting termination of life in such cases to reduce the period of suffering during the process of certain natural death is not available to interpret Article 21 to include therein the right to curtail the natural span of life."
Every man as per Hindu religion lives to accomplish four objectives of life (1) Dharma (2) Artha (3) Karma and (4) Moksha. When the earthly objectives are complete, religion would require a person not to clinch to the body. Thus a man has moral right to terminate his life, because death is simply changing the old body into a new one.