Sati Law
The UPA government has apparently abandoned the plan to strengthen the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (which had been cleared by a GoM in August 2007) by increasing prison terms for those who commit or glorify the practice. It was proposed to hold the entire community responsible for the act.
The Bill was being driven by the Women and Child Development Ministry and was to not only make the coercing of a woman to commit Sati a non-bailable offence and but also to make local panchayats responsible for alerting the police and the District Magistrate to incidents of Sati.
Cabinet minister for mines Sis Ram Ola said the proposals would challenge existing mores. [Never mind that that's why the Act exists: so that women aren't burnt to death on their husbands' funeral pyres due to social mores and religious beliefs.] He also asked what would happen to Sati temples and how the government would deal with people worshipping in them.
The Bill also made provision for villages where Sati occured to be heavily fined. Science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said that there were legal lapses in the bill insofar as it held the panchayat and onlookers responsible for participating in Sati. [If you're going to stand back and applaud as an often unwilling woman is murdered, why on earth shouldn't you be held responsible?]
