The Bombay high court on Monday posted for August 23 the final hearing of a petition on the controversial issue of child diksha, which came into the limelight after an 8-year-old opted for it in March 2004.
The Bombay high court on Monday posted for August 23 the final hearing of a petition on the controversial issue of child diksha, which came into the limelight after an 8-year-old opted for it in March 2004.
A division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice RV More was hearing a petition filed by Ashok Bagricha and several others. It also sought the assistance of additional solicitor general Darius Khambata and advocate general Ravi Kadam on this “sensitive issue”.
The 2004 incident was brought to the notice of the Child Welfare Committee by an NGO called Childline. In July 2006, the HC directed the CWC to find whether she had taken diksha voluntarily or was forced. The CWC reported that the young girl needs care. Her parents challenged the CWC’s order in the high court, which stayed the CWC order.
In September 2008, a bench of the court compared child diksha with sati. “No religion can allow a minor to become a sadhu. It’s as bad as sati pratha and there should be some law to prevent minors from taking diksha,” a bench headed by justice PB Majmudar had observed.
The judges also said that in such matters, the court should appoint someone as a guardian and to decide the issue. “Under the provisions of law, the court is the ultimate guardian of every minor. If we do not protect the rights of this minor child, we will fail in our duty,” the bench added.
The court-appointed committee interviewed the girl at a Jain temple in Juhu in September 2008. The committee observed that prima-facie “giving diksha to the child sadhviji is a positive volition on her part at the time the decision was taken for her and an absence of thinking about the consequences by and for her”.
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