Khap panchayats seek amendment of Hindu marriage act

KURUKSHETRA: Defiant leaders of various 'khap panchayats' or caste councils on Tuesday decided to support six people convicted by a Haryana court for an honour killing and sought an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act saying marriages within the same 'gotra' or sub-caste should be banned.

At a chaotic meeting of the mahapanchayat of over 20 khaps from across Haryana and adjoining states, a section of the leaders suddenly announced their decision to support the six convicts, five of whom were last month sentenced to death for killing Manoj and Babli in 2007 for marrying within the same gotra.

The decision of the Sarv Khap Sarv Jaat Mahasammelan was, however, opposed by a section of khap leaders from Haryana saying all views were not allowed to be expressed at the meeting.

Khap leaders blocked a road here in protest saying the Haryana government would have to assure them that it would write to the central government seeking an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, to completely ban marriages within the same sub-caste and even the same village.

During speeches made by various khap leaders, some speakers said the conviction by the Karnal court was against the tradition maintained by the khaps.

"We don't want a constitution or a law that goes against our age-old tradition," one speaker said, virtually challenging the Indian Constitution.

The meeting also decided to collect Rs.10 each from all people who were part of any khap to meet the expenses of defending those convicted for the honour killing of the couple.

With the Khap panchayat asking for their marriage laws to be accepted as legal, the issue of a common civil code has to be revisited. The common or uniform civil code is not a code that intends to steamroller all personal laws into one mishmash of common civil law. It is simply to ensure that all Indian citizens, apart from being governed according to their community based personal laws, have the option to be governed under the civil laws of the constitution of India. A couple opting out of a community based personal law would automatically come under the protection of the civil personal law of the Indian constitution. The only law that can attract punishment if not complied with has to be the laws set out in the constitution. All the other personal laws can only function as an option to be exercised by anyone willing to exercise that option. The Khap panchayat, in punishing a couple to death for not abiding by their community based personal law has abrogated to itself a power that is vested only in the Indian state and therefore committed violation against the constitution of India. Thus, the decision of the court to award death penalty to the accused in the murder of the couple is an inevitable decision and must be supported by everyone who believes in the supremacy of the Indian constitution and therefore the Indian state and nation.


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