SC assures ‘complete protection’ to Baghpat girl from Khap diktat

The khap panchayat had allegedly ordered her to be raped and paraded naked as punishment for her brother falling in love with an upper-caste girl and eloping with her.

In an hour long in-camera hearing, the Supreme Court on Tuesday assured a 23-year-old girl and her family “complete protection” from the diktat of a khap panchayat who allegedly ordered her to be raped and paraded naked as punishment for her brother falling in love with an upper-caste girl and eloping with her.

The girl’s case is considered as a cold-blooded example of the depravity of a caste-ridden society. A bench comprising Justices J. Chelameswar and A.M. Sapre had on Monday asked her and her family, who had fled to the National Capital from their native Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, to be present in the court today to directly assure them of the protection of law.

Senior advocate Rebecca John said the hour-long hearing saw the judges fortify the resolve of the girl’s family by assuring “complete protection” from injustice.

In its order, the bench directed the Baghpat Police to produce the girl’s brother and be present in the courtroom at 2 pm on September 16. She had also filed a habeas corpus petition to know the whereabouts of her brother.

The court also asked the Delhi Police to produce records of any complaint given by the girl in Mehrauli police station here.

The girl, who hails a village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, has claimed that she had to "flee her village due to atrocities of members of Jat community and the UP Police. She and her family cannot return to her village and have been rendered homeless”.

The plea further contended that the brother's affair invited the wrath of police and Jat community as a consequence of which her family members were abducted and tortured by the police.

"My brother has also been falsely implicated by the police in a NDPS case and due to harassment and immense pressure from the girl's family, he and his wife surrendered before Delhi Police at Mehrauli police station," it said.

The girl has also stated that her father had lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Scheduled Castes about the harassment being meted out to her by police and khap panchayat.