Law on Honour Killings

The consistent attempts from some quarters to pass off the flagrant highhandedness and the hooliganism of the khap panchayats just as a law and order problem is too simplistic to tackle an ominous social nuisance. No doubt, that the law making by the Parliament on a matter on the subject of ‘law and order’ requires the consent of the States since the ‘law and order’ is a state subject. However, we dare not to lose sight of the fact that instances of the honour killings are outright crimes involving the gruesome murders of the innocent lovebirds without any justifiable reason or rhyme. To curb a crime, both Union and State Legislatures are competent to enact the law but subject to a rider that in case of any inconsistency in such law, the state law will have to give way to the Central law. The ruthless snuffing out of the sacred lives by taking refuge in the antiquated and unenforceable customs not only renders the much cherished constitutional freedoms and liberties redundant but is also grossly anathema to the tenets of the great Indian culture and civilization embedded into the ideals of the compassion, tolerance, non-violence and peaceful co-existence. The glorification of such crimes, aids in various forms to the culprits by the khap panchayats should tantamount to criminal abetment and conspiracy in the perpetration of such crimes because it provides a supportive ground to the misguided zealots giving rise to the repeated occurrence of such gory incidents. The medieval diktats like social ostracism and/or expulsion of the couple and their family, pronouncing the legally wedded persons as brother and sister by the khap panchayats should also specifically be declared prohibited and punishable. Hence, the khap panchayats can not be absolved of the criminal culpability and gap in the law must be filled adequately. The Indian Parliament is obliged to provide a deterrent law to eradicate this social evil even if any State is striving to stall it for obvious political compulsions. Nevertheless, since the law is to be ultimately administered and enforced by the States, it would be desirable to take the States on the board before the enactment of the law.