Reply to a petition challenging martyr status to Gajender Singh: HC tells AAP govt

New Delhi, July 1

Delhi High Court ordered the state government on Wednesday to respond to cabinet's decision to accord ‘martyr’ status to a Rajasthan farmer who had hung himself at an AAP rally in April.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath was hearing a petition challenging the move by saying suicide could not be glorified.

The court also chided the AAP government for not submitting a copy of the government’s decision.          

The incident had occurred during an Aam Aadmi Party rally against the Land Acquisition Bill at Jantar Mantar on April 22 when Gajendra Singh Kalyanwat, a farmer from Rajasthan, hanged himself from a tree at the venue.

The court will hear the case on September 2.

On May 6, the court had sought the Delhi government's response on the PIL, which wants to court to stop Arvind Kejriwal’s government from installing a statue in memory of the farmer.

In his plea, the petitioner has also opposed the government's decision to launch a Farmers' Compensation Scheme named after Kalyanwat and promising a job to a family member.

"This act of respondent 1 (Delhi government) was nothing but an effort to glorify, justify, praise, support and consecrate the act of suicide, attempt thereof itself is an offence under section 309 of Indian Penal Code, 1860," the petition said.

It has also contended that the government's decision was also "a kind of abatement and temptation to others to commit such a criminal and cowardly act which is not only prejudicial to public interest but also a hostile attitude to the sanctity of life and thus, nobody, what to talk about the government, can support and glorify such an act." PTI