Jain trust gets HC caveat to ordain minor as sadhu

While the caveat does not mention any date, Mary Arokia, a Juvenile Justice Board member who has been campaigning against the practice, said the order is usually issued a day before the religious ceremony.

Arokia’s organisation YUVA has also received the communication along with the caveat. “They do not give us any time to react. In the past too, we have received such caveats. If we plan any action, the child’s parents would have to be informed as they have a favourable order. It works as a restraining order for us,” she said.

A PIL filed before the Bombay High Court in 2004 challenging the legality of this custom and calling it against the right of a child is yet to be decided. It was filed after an eight-year-old girl renounced the material world, outraging among child rights activists. For the last one year, the court has kept the petition for final hearing. However, during the hearings, a division bench had observed that the “right to childhood conflicts with the right to religion.”

Ujjwal Uke, Child Rights Commission’s chairperson and principal secretary of Women and Child Development department, said they had not been able to take any stand.  In fact, in November 2013,  the Commission had turned away YUVA saying they had no role to play in the issue, after which the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had ordered an inquiry and sought a report from its state’s counterpart. However, the state’s commission has not initiated any inquiry as yet.

Uke said, “There is a need for a dialogue between all stakeholders. I plan to call for a meeting next week. We will also intervene in the PIL as a party and take a stand taking the child’s right into consideration.”

sukanya.shetty@expressindia.com