Keywords – black magic, superstition, witchcraft, Kerala high Court, PIL.
In 2022 a horrifying incident was brought into light where two women were killed as well as buried in a very merciless manner while performing human sacrifice ritual. This ritual was solely based on superstition just for the sake of financial prosperity to the convicts.
After this murder an atheist organization, Kerala Yuktiwadi Sanghamhad filed a PIL in the Kerala High Court to seek for a direction in the Kerala Prevention & eradication of Inhumane Practices, Black Magic Bill, 2019. After this petition, it also came to light that due to a number of desires such evil practices have been prevalent in Kerala from a very long period of time and mostly the victims are either women, children or downtrodden group.
The matter went into the hands of a two judge bench comprising Justice S V N Bhatti & Basant Balaji. In the earlier hearing of 2022, it was also noted that at that time Maharashtra has enacted it’s Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice Act, 2013.
On 13th of June, 2023 the State Attorney had said that in making a differentiation between what is belief and what is superstition, discussion will be long so the time to contemplate the legislation would also be taking some time. The court also noted that since two times no representation was made from the sides of the petitioners so the court then moved to dismiss the petition.
Black magic and superstition as well as their related crimes are an ugly reality of our society. This is the reason that latest NCRB reports are now containing separate columns to mention them.
Written by – Yashashvi Mishra, College – S S Khanna Girls Degree College, University of Allahabad, Year – 2nd year 4th semester, an intern under Legal Vidhiya
[1] https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/kerala-high-court/kerala-high-court-pil-dismiss-law-against-superstition-human-sacrifice-230592
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