Rajasthan Passes Honour Of Dead Body Bill, 2023: Explained

The Rajasthan Assembly this week passed The Rajasthan Honour of Dead Body Bill, 2023, to prevent protests with a dead body. The bill seeks to penalise such acts that can attract imprisonment for up to five years.  

What is the bill about?

The Rajasthan Honour of Dead Body Bill, 2023, aims to make protesting with dead bodies a punishable offence and ensure the dignity of the deceased's body. Now, anyone who is found staging a protest on roads, outside police stations or any other public place with a dead body can face jail time between six months to five years along with a fine.

Besides curbing the use of a person's remains for protest, the bill seeks to ensure that every dead person has the right to last rites. It makes the family liable to perform the last rites of the deceased member at the earliest. If the family refuses to do so despite orders by the Executive Magistrate or the local police officer, then the last rites will be performed by the public authority.

The Rajasthan Honour of Dead Body Bill, 2023, also has provisions for the maintenance and protection of data of unclaimed dead bodies.

Penalty

The bill states that if the family member refuses to take possession of the dead body then he can be imprisoned for up to one year or fine or both. Using the body to stage a protest or demonstration or giving consent for it can be punishable with up to two years of imprisonment and a fine. If anyone other than the family of the deceased protests with the dead body then it will invite imprisonment of up to five years with a fine.  

Why the bill?

According to Rajasthan Parliament Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal, the bill has been brought in view of the rise in incidents where the family protests with the body of the deceased seeking “unjustified demands”.   

“It is becoming a habit of people to keep a dead body for 7-8 days and demand jobs or money,” the minister said. Dhariwal added that between 2014 and 2018, 82 such incidents were reported where the family staged a protest sitting with the dead body which led to 30 police cases.  

Between 2019 and 2023, the minister shared, the number of such incidents increased to 306 where 91 police cases were lodged.

Highlighting the need to bring the bill, Shanti Dhariwal said, “Till now, there was no such act and there was no provision in regard to any other act”.