திண்ணை

Kavita Srivastava

August 5, 2004

Dear friends,

Sometime ago we had circulated an appeal for funds to support the legal intervention undertaken by us in the various sati matters in the lower Court in Jaipur and in the Rajasthan High Court. As you are aware that at the moment there 22 cases relating to glorification of Sati of year 1987. Out of which four were dismissed on 31st January 2004. A fifth one was dismissed in May 2004 and a sixth one in July 2004. Since the Government refused to go in for appeal out of political reasons we decided to file a writ petitions against each of the dismissals in the High Court. We have already filed writ petitions in the four cases dismissed in January 2004. The writ petitions will come up tomorrow on the 6th .

Our lawyers were extremely kind and have financed everything. Getting out the papers, the drafting of the petition, typing and the filing of the petition. This was done by the Academy of Socio Legal Studies, which consists of a group of ten young lawyers led by Senior Advocate Prem Krishna Sharma of the Rajasthan High Court.

Since women ‘s groups in Rajasthan are not funded groups and have to fund raise all the time for the work that we do, we are asking you to support us in this legal battle.

We need about twenty five thousand rupees just for the court work for these 22 cases (bringing out the complete case files, photocopying, paying for the computer work and the filing of the cases).

Since we need one person to continuously monitor the cases at the lower court where 16 cases are still being argued we would like to pay a small honorarium and travel money for that person. So we would like atleast Rs. 25,000 for the next six months. This person will also monitor all the other cases that we take up every relating to pooja and glorification in the various sati temples. The month is Bhadva ( September ) when all the sati mandirs have big poojas and everytime we have to get the court monitor the implementation of the commission of sati prevention Act.

If Rs. 50, 000 (fifty thousand) can be made available to us through contributions than it would be very valuable. Contributions of upto five thousand by each organisation will help us a lot. Actually any amount is acceptable.

All Contributions by cheques and drafts should be sent in the name of the Academy for Socio Legal Studies, Jaipur. They can be sent to c/o Kavita Srivastava, 76, Shanti Niketan Colony, Kisan Marg, Jaipur-302015.( phone: 0141/ 2706483, 9828363611 ) Jaipur groups have made the Academy the nodal body for this case. We will send you the accounts for the money sent to us from time to time.

Kavita Srivastava (on behalf of Jaipur network of women ‘s organisations)

Kavita Srivastava

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ravisrinivas@rediffmail.com