BOLD ,PROGRESSIVE AND HISTORICAL DECISION BY RAJASTHAN HIGH COURT/DECLARES 'SANTHARA' AN OFFENCE !
Jains are up in arms against the Rajasthan High Court’s decision to term the community’s age-old practice of ‘Santhara’ or ‘sullekhana’ as suicide. The court also declared it as offence.
Santhara literally means a fast-unto-death. A person taking a vow of santhara stops eating and drinking water and awaits death.

A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court, comprising Chief Justice Sunil Ambwani and Justice VS Siradhana on August 10 called the practice punishable under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court also ordered support to Santhara by any person punishable as abetment under Section 306 of the IPC.
The court order was in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a human rights activist Nikhil Soni.
The court had said: “The state shall stop and abolish the practice of ‘Santhara’ in the Jain religion in any form. Any complaint made in this regard shall be registered as a criminal case and investigated by the police in the light of the recognition of law in the Constitution and in accordance with Section 309 (attempt to suicide) and section 306 (abetment).”