‘Legalising Euthanasia’ Cannot be a Sound Verdict

If peace can only come through killing someone, then one must remember that it’s harder to heal than it is to kill. May be the sufferer’s pangs remain so deep to forget, but the gift of life once in a lifetime cannot be snatched away by a mere act of ‘euthanasia’ which is killing someone who is suffering from an incurable disease.

Illegal in many parts of countries in UK, passive euthanasia in the Indian Supreme Court brought an exhibit of cases that has been rolling over since various years. Passive Euthanasia is described as a plea to kill a patient by turning off halting medications, respirators and discontinuing food and water so that the patient is terminated to illness and eventually death. There has been cases including Meghalaya’s Adbul Rahim’s plea for mercy killing his son fighting a blood disease for 16 years; Lakshmamma’s plea for mercy killing of his son who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years.

Recently an NGO named ‘Commo Euthanasia can be legal on three major pillars- a person voluntarily wants death, a person who gives an informed decision and a person suffering unbearably. Moreover, mercy killing would raise a question on medical ethics too. Another crucial thing we can understand here is that within the thick walls of euthanasia, one must see the loopholes of the society- Poverty, Rape, Corruption, etc. The Court needs to apprehend such issues first rather looking into the matter of mercy killing.

Euthanasia must not be permissible in our legal system. It will be here to understand as to under what circumstances the petition is forced to remove the jurisdiction of Hon’ble Court for the sanction of Euthanasia. The Court is already applying its judicial mind in the matter of Euthanasia, but at the same time the prayer which is sought for in the petition, the prayer seems to be unconstitutional prima facian Cause’ has filed a petition for legalising euthanasia. It’s a sheer manslaughtering or criminal homicide. It can no way be justified. A shaded debate occurred among the Supreme Courts, lawyers, intellectuals, etc. ‘Right to Live’ is definitely guaranteed in our Constitution, but ‘Right to Die’ is nowhere guaranteed in the Constitution of India.

Asaram, a Con-Man rather than a Saint

The saint community has been under scrutiny with mine of news playing around about their notorious acts with people who supposedly obey them for nothing. One can look back at U.K. Ananthamurthy’s ‘Samskara’ where the whole Pandit religious clan is satirised for their preaching which remained as old tradition and blindly following rules without any meaningful existence. The author left a question to the humanity that "What is actually culture (Samskara) - is it achieved by blindly following rules and traditions, is it lost when they are not kept?"

The tradition and the rule is decreasing day by day with our present day fraud Babas, one of them is Asaram Bapu. He is one of the culprits who presently portrayed as a conman. His arrest in 1st September 2013, this so called godman might have realised that the austerity of the priestly life is utterly unsuited with his love for sensual and material things.

Asaram Bapu along with his co-accused was arrested for various reasons namely rape, wrongful confinement, human trafficking, intimidation and criminal conspiracy. Under various sections of Juvenile Justice Act, IPC and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO), Asaram Bapu is accussed under the pretext of sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl in his Jodhpur ashram between 1997 and 2006.

Also Asaram said that the girl has a natural willingness to be physical with men. How a Baba could utter such nuisance? What about his son, Narayan Sai who has already escaped from the scene accused of sexually assaulting two Surat-based girls? After his potency test, now this fraud is convicted with 1,011 page charge sheet comprising of 121 documents and has statements of 58 witnesses.

Such culprits should be shunned from the society who preaches negativity and superstition. It is quite funny to see on the flip side of the coin that how his blind followers attack lawyers to see Asaram only to bow before him. The distinction between good and bad by these followers has already been diminished. They are sucked out of their moral values and only fed by hollow values making them unable to see the right and wrong.

Knowing the fact that he has done a shameful act, Asaram does not feel shame in applying for bail second time. Rajasthan High Court and Bail Lawyer(s) has denied granting his bail.  Charges against this fraud Asaram reveal that he possesses the deadly sins- greed, sloth, lust, envy and anger-such things make him no ‘sant’.

Protection or Creation of a Privileged Class

Few days ago, The Supreme Court asked the Centre to apprise of governance benefits from shielding the top bureaucrats. The constitution bench of Justices R M Lodha, A K Patnaik, S J Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and F M I Kalifulla expressed their desire to know whether the protection had improved policy making and governance or not.

17 years ago, the court had in Vineet Narain judgment turned down the Centre Government request to protect the top government officials such as joint secretary and above rank officials from the charges against corruption as it hamper the smooth functioning of the government.
The apex court termed it as illegal, a roadblock in eradicating the corruption, how can government barred the CBI from investigating the matters? And it awe considering that CBI cannot even start an inquiry without the consent of the Centre.

Apex court also condemns the September 11, 2003 decision of the NDA government, which took the legislative route to add Section 6A in Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act to give similar protection.

The bench of five judges imparted that this kind of safeguard can further encourage the corruption. They said, “Do you want governance where everyone is free to take money? How can protection be given to those who have disproportionate assets? How can you establish a link between disproportionate assets and bold policy making?”

“All bureaucrats and government servants have a protection under the PC Act, which requires a probe agency to seek sanction from concerned authority prior to prosecution. Why this special protection for a small band?” a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice R M Lodha said.
What I want to make a point here that, India is a democratic country and everyone is equal before the law, Rule of Law is an indispensable element of our constitution. Such types of provisions violate the equality and demarcate between the privileged and underprivileged. I appreciate that Supreme Court expressed stiff concern over it and no one can tolerate the violation of Anticorruption Law.