Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill 2015: A critique by women’s organizations

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The Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Bill 2015 was introduced in the Rajasthan State Assembly on 31st March, 2015. If passed, Rajasthan will become the 5th state to have a bill of such kind. Earlier the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa have passed the law. In Rajasthan women’s groups have been demanding that such a law be passed since year 2000 and after much discussion the first draft was presented by the State Women’s Commission as early as 2005 to the Government of Rajasthan. Then in 2011 / 2012 a comprehensive bill called the Rajasthan Prevention of Atrocities on Women bill was drafted by the WCD, GOR which had witch hunting as one of the punishable atrocities. After the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 coming into force, many of the sections of the Rajasthan bill had been taken care off. Therefore the Ministry of Home Affairs in due course asked the GOR to pass the witch hunting bill as a separate bill.

At the Same time the Rajasthan High Court in two cases, of the Principal court in Jodhpur and the Jaipur Bench, requested the GOR in December and January, respectively, to make a law to prevent witch hunting and punish the guilty. As part of that the GOR acted with urgency and came up with this law.

Our Critique and suggestions

At the outset itself we would like urge the MLAs to send this bill to the standing committee, by the house for deeper examination and public inputs, so that a robust law is passed by the State Assembly, giving the country a model law for other States and the centre.

The bill has broadly the following problems

— It lacks a preamble, thus not giving a framework for the interpretation of the law.

— It has problems in definition particularly in its definition of a “witch”, the language is sloppy. The brutality of the acts that a woman is subjected to has not been captured in the definition of witch hunting.

— It has disaggregated punishment clauses, by giving a minimum of seven years for even death caused by such an act, is diluting the gravity of the offence.

— There has been no Institutional burden been put in the law on the traditional panchayats, including the jati and the village panchayats, thus keeping intact the vote banks of parties through these institutions. This burden should have been put in as a sub-section of the law itself

— The issue of dereliction of duty by the administration and the Police has not been dealt with. Like in the SC & ST prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, it should have been in this law itself, in order to put the burden of the offence as an abdication of State. Thus making the district administration and police accountable.

— The issue of compensation and rehabilitation has been dealt with as part of sloppy process of collective fine, which is non-workable. And then left compensation to the order of the judicial court, which maybe a long drawn out process. This is very problematic

— Thus we insist that the responsibility of rehabilitation and rebuilding the life should be on the local administration and the Government. They should initiate a process of rebuilding the life of the victim and should be spelt out in the law, rather than leave it to some scheme. This is also goes against the order ofthe Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur bench, dated 22nd January, where the Court has said that atleast Rs 200,000 should be paid to the victim as interim relief. Leave alone planning for her restoration back into the village, her house, protecting her life and the rest. It has been left to some scheme at a future data and not come in as an entitlement for the victim woman.

— This attitude of lip service and undermining the process of rehabilitation and restoration of dignity is a major lacunae of the law. This needs to be put in place before the law is passed.

— While the criminal part of the law can be prospective coming into force after its passage, but the rehabilitation and compensation should be put in place retrospectively as per the order of the Rajasthan High Court Jaipur bench.

Since Rajasthan must give a model law to the country, this bill must not be passed today and sent to the standing committee for further deliberations and bringing in the point of view of the public and women’s organisations.

The section by Section critique is as follows:

Section 1(3)-
It shall come into force from the date signing by the Governor.

Section-2(a)-
In place of otherwise the words by any name should be replaced.

Section-2(b)-
In place of “witch craft means use of these words should be used”, “witch craft” means claim by any person of.

Section -2(c)-
The word otherwise to be replaced by “by any name”

Section – 2(d) (ii)-
Add the word ‘or her family’ and ‘emotionally’ to the definition of witch-hunting.

The sub-section will read: (ii) harassing, harming or injuring such woman or her family whether mentally or physically or emotionally or by damaging her property.

Section-2(d)-
Add a sub-section, sub-section iii, which provides for ‘ostracising’, ‘evicting’ and other experiences of brutality subjected to woman as a part of the definition of witch hunting.

Section-2(d)- could also be re-written as
Any person or group of persons who labels a woman with any name, surname or adjective with a view to attribute to her any supernatural power supposed to harm others and, on that account-

(a) subjects her to any atrocity, mental, emotional or physical(including undressing, restricting movement, dragging etc.) and/or
(b) compels her to stay away from her family, locality or abode and/or
(c) coerces her to relinquish her rights on her land, property, money, or any other possession shall be guilty of the offence of witch hunting.

Section-4
The word Rs. 50,000/- be replaced by 1,00,000/-.

Section-5
The word 10,000/- be replaced by Rs. 50,000/-.

Section-7
The word rigorous imprisonment for a term “which shall not be less than 7 years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life or with fine which shall not be less than 1 Lac rupees or with both be replaced by imprisonment for life and fine, which shall not be less than 5 Lacs rupees.
Explanation- Where the death is caused because of witch hunting exercises it will be presumed that the death was caused intentionally.

Section-8(6)-
To be Omitted-

Section-9(1)-
After the words property of the victim it should be added in case death is caused the amount of fine will be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased.

Section-9(2)-
The word 60% to be replaced by 100%.

A separate section be added for rehabilitation and settlement of the victims and the cost in full should be borne by the State Government. It should include restoration of the woman back in her home, providing full protection to her and her family. And immediate relief of Rs. 200, 000 be added as suggested by the Rajasthan High Court in its order of 22nd January, 2015. This section should be with retrospective effect as there are a large number of women who have been victimised by this practice.

Section-12-
A sub-section, sub-section iii should be added which provides for the State Government providing for protection to activists and rationalists who expose such practices.

Rules should be finalized after consultation with social organizations.


The write-up has been jointly prepared by Kavita Srivastava, Radha Kant Saxena, Prem Krishan Sharma (People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan), Nisha Sidhu , Malti Gupta, Raj Kumari Dogra (National Federation of Indian women), Tara Ahluwalia (Mahila evam Bal Chetna Samiti, Bhilwara), Renuka Pamecha (Women’s rehabilitation group), Mamta Jaitly (Vividha Women’s Documentation and Resource Centre), Bina Agarwal (Rajasthan University Women’s Association, Jaipur), Kusum Saiwal (All India Democratic Women’s Association),
Komal Srivastava (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Rajasthan) andLad Kumari Jain (Former Chairperson, Rajasthan State Women’s Commission).

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