Rajkot: There seems to be no end to the woes of a family facing social boycott from members of its own community — Kharvas — in Jafrabad town of Amreli district. This is despite orders from the Gujarat high court favouring the victim family.Shankar Baraiya, his wife, two sons and both daughter-in-laws were thrown out by their community in a humiliating manner, that too for a petty reason. But Baraiya took the fight to the high court, which likened the community leaders’ diktat to Khap Panchayat and came down heavily on them.A social boycott in Saurashtra means that the victim family is kept in a state of quarantine, not allowed to work, buy food or use water from the sources located in the area where the community members live.The community leaders, who were made respondents in the petition filed by Baraiya in HC, had early this month agreed to publish an advertisement revoking social boycott of the Baraiya family in local newspapers. However, Baraiya has alleged that the community leaders were yet to finalize the content of the advertisement.The court had also ordered community leaders to ensure that normalcy is restored and such act is not repeated. Community leaders were also asked to abide by their apology submitted in court.Kiran Bariya, one of the petitioners, said, “The draft of the advertisement, which was prepared, was not acceptable to us because the content was one-sided. We have given them (community leaders) our draft. We have told them if they are not ready to publish the same, then we will put up this issue before the court during the next hearing.”The case is expected to come up for hearing on Monday.Meanwhile, Babu Bhalia, whose family was expelled before six months in a similar fashion, also joined the petition. Bhalia’s advocate urged the court that the community leaders have placed CCTV cameras outside his shop to keep watch on people visiting the shop. The court ordered district officials to examine the issue and further directed them to remove the cameras immediately.

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