But amicus says families of couples going against khap are left with no option but to kill them
In the last four or five years, no khap or its member has been directly or indirectly involved in crime against people who went against community norms, Haryana Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) M.S. Mann informed the Supreme Court on Monday.
He told a Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai, hearing a PIL petition filed by Shakti Vahini, that khap panchayats were not involved in honour killings of inter-caste or same gotra couples.
A senior police officer from Uttar Pradesh also said there was no honour killing in the State. These officers supported the khaps’ contentions and said they were not fomenting any law and order problem.
The police officers were responding to the summonses issued last week to the ADGP and the Superintendents of Police of Rohtak and Jind, besides the police chiefs of Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, to have their views on the feasibility of putting in place a pilot project to prevent the khaps from taking the law into their own hands.
When the Uttar Pradesh police officer told the court that there was an incident of a khap panchayat banning the use of mobile phones by girls but no force was used to enforce the diktat, the Bench observed, “It is just the tip of the iceberg,” and wanted to know “what is there below the surface?”
The Uttar Pradesh police official, however, maintained that the force was not facing any problem from the khaps.
The officers told the court that the khaps were in fact doing good work in preventing female foeticide.
But Raju Ramachandran, amicus curiae, said the families of couples going against the wishes of the khaps were left with no option but to kill them. “This is the atmosphere.”
“The main culprits”
In an affidavit, the Sarv Khap Panchayats of Rohtak said the “main culprits of honour killings are not the representatives of khaps, but the near and dear ones of the affected couples and more so, the relatives of the girls when they cannot resist the social pressure of the locality and the taunts of the [other] relatives. Any effort to regulate the khaps’ conduct and role would not have any impact on the incidents of honour killings.”
The khaps were not against marriages involving couples from different castes, religions, creed or regions. They were only against same gotra marriages, an issue on which they had made a representation to the Central government, seeking an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, which was a democratic act, they contended. Religious scriptures had prohibited such marriages and as such the curb should become part of law, they said. The Law Commission had recommended steps to curb the activities of khaps without consulting them, they added.
The Bench directed all parties to file their response by February 25 and posted further hearing to March 5.
Keywords: inter-caste marriage, same gotra marriages, Khap panchayat, kangaroo court, honour killing
Well, if we still continue to be arguing about these inane and archaic ideas, how are we going to develop as an advanced nation. "Religious scriptures had prohibited such marriages ". Can the rule of law in the nation really prevent any couple from getting married, however diverse they are? If the answer is yes, then sadly, we are still a backward nation.
Are the Police so naive as to believe that the Khaps are not involved in any honor killing?Are they so stupid as to be taken in that Khaps' writs do not run in the villages of the two states? Or perhaps they think that they can fool the courts into accepting their averments at face value.The Amicus Curiae has got it absolutely right when he so subtly says that the families of couples are left with no option but to kill them.That remark alone damns the police for their slipshod investigation and the Khaps for indirectly instigating the families to carry out their diktats at the risk of total ostracization.One only hopes that the Courts can see through the ploy of the police and the Khaps to pull the wool (read cotton wool) over everyones eyes.
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