PTI, NEW DELHI: The SC asserted that the illegal activities of ‘khap panchayats’ have to be stopped completely, saying the honour killings of inter-caste couples was a social evil that “guillotined” individual liberty and freedom of choice having a “catastrophic effect” on the society.
Terming honour crimes as an assault on human dignity and the majesty of the law, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra recommended that a law be brought to deal with offences which are “abhorrent to law”, as it laid down preventive, remedial and punitive measures to deal with these crimes.
‘Khaps’ are self-appointed village courts, representing a clan or a group of clans, which are found mostly in northern India, especially in Haryana and UP. These have emerged as quasi-judicial bodies that pronounce harsh punishments based on age-old customs and traditions, often bordering on regressive measures.
The way the ‘khaps’ behave, it appears that they harbour the notion that “they are a law unto themselves or they are the ancestors of Caesar or, for that matter, Louis the XIV”, the bench said.
Observing that the ‘khaps’ which subscribed to honour killings “without the slightest pangs of conscience”, it said the human rights of a daughter, brother, sister or son “are not mortgaged to the so-called or so-understood honour of family or clan or the collective”.
The top court said the ‘khap panchayats’ or such assemblies cannot take law into their hands or assume the character of the law implementing agency as that authority has not been conferred upon them under any law.
It said such groups cannot take the defence that they are spreading awareness in order to justify their acts that affect others’ fundamental rights or to cover up their own illegal acts.
“It (acts of khap) is simply not permissible. In fact, it has to be condemned as an act abhorrent to law and, therefore, it has to stop. Their activities are to be stopped in entirety. There is no other alternative. What is illegal cannot commend recognition or acceptance,” it said.
