PUCL,
August 2004
An appeal
Fund raising for legal battle in sati cases
-- By Kavita Srivastava
See also, Rajasthan
High Court admits PILs in Sati glorification matters,
7 August 2004
August 5, 2004
Dear friends,
Sometime ago we had circulated an appeal for funds to support the legal
intervention undertaken by us in the various sati matters in the lower
Court in
Jaipur and in the Rajasthan High Court. As you are aware that at the moment
there 22 cases relating to glorification of Sati of year 1987. Out
of which four were dismissed on 31st January 2004. A fifth one was
dismissed in May 2004 and a
sixth one in July 2004. Since the Government refused to go in for appeal out
of
political reasons we decided to file a writ petitions against each of the
dismissals in the High Court. We have already filed writ petitions in the four
cases dismissed in January 2004. The writ petitions will come up tomorrow on
the
6th .
Our lawyers were extremely kind and have financed everything. Getting out the
papers, the drafting of the petition, typing and the filing of the petition.
This was done by the Academy of Socio Legal Studies, which consists
of a group
of ten young lawyers led by Senior Advocate Prem Krishna Sharma of
the Rajasthan
High Court.
Since women's groups in Rajasthan are not funded groups and have to
fund raise
all the time for the work that we do, we are asking you to support
us in this
legal battle.
We need about twenty five thousand rupees just for the court work for
these 22
cases (bringing out the complete case files, photocopying, paying for
the
computer work and the filing of the cases).
Since we need one person to continuously monitor the cases at the lower
court
where 16 cases are still being argued we would like to pay a small
honorarium
and travel money for that person. So we would like atleast Rs. 25,000
for the
next six months. This person will also monitor all the other cases
that we take
up every relating to pooja and glorification in the various sati temples.
The
month is Bhadva ( September ) when all the sati mandirs have big poojas
and
everytime we have to get the court monitor the implementation of the
commission
of sati prevention Act.
If Rs. 50, 000 (fifty thousand) can be made available to us through
contributions than it would be very valuable. Contributions of upto
five
thousand by each organisation will help us a lot. Actually any amount
is
acceptable.
All Contributions by cheques and drafts should be sent in the name
of the
Academy for Socio Legal Studies, Jaipur. They can be sent to c/o Kavita
Srivastava, 76, Shanti Niketan Colony, Kisan Marg, Jaipur-302015.( phone:
0141/
2706483, 9828363611 ) Jaipur groups have made the Academy the nodal
body for
this case. We will send you the accounts for the money sent to us from
time to
time.
Kavita Srivastava (on behalf of Jaipur network of women's organisations)