Khap Panchayats of Haryana order death, exile and social ostracism

Khap panchayats of northern India mock civilized legal system by ‘ordering’ death and exile

The savage and totally mindless practice of the so-called ‘honour killings’ are on the rise in northern India, especially in Haryana, which is not far from the national capital of Delhi.

Look at what the ‘khap panchayat’ did to a couple in a village that is only 50 kilometres from Delhi. The ‘crime’ of the couple was that they belonged to the same ‘gotra.’

Khaps are traditional, area-based community groups. Their rulings have no legal validity. In keeping with their so-called traditions, the khap panchayats oppose and annul marriages within the same ‘gotra’ (lineage) and administer cruel and inhuman punishments to ‘erring’ couples.

On July 24, 2009, a khap panchayat ‘banished’ the couple Ravinder and Shilpa and Ravinder’s entire family from their village.

The khap panchayat ordered their banishment on the ground that Ravinder is a ‘Gehlot’ from Dharana, and Shilpa is a ‘Kadyan’ from Siwah, in Panipat.

The Kadyan khap panchayat ‘invalidated’ the marriage between the members of the two gotras because they are relatives! The khap panchayat’s skewed logic goes like this: The family of Ravinder lives in the same village as Shilpa’s extended family.

The tradition dictates that those living in khaps are not allowed to marry in the same gotra; they are not even allowed to marry a member in any gotra from the same village or the neighbouring villages.

What makes the ruling of ‘banishment’ of Ravinder’s family by the Kadyan khap panchayat all the more shocking is that it came only about 24 hours after the cruel killing of a young man called Ved Pal Mor – he was lynched by the villagers of Singhwal in the very presence of the police.

What was the crime that Ved Pal Mor committed? He married a girl from the same gotra.

The two incidents mentioned above are only the most recent in a long series of such uncivilized ‘punishments’ meted out to those couples who ‘offended’ the khap traditions.

Going further back, there are similar cruel incidents galore: In June 2009, a khap panchayat forced Manoj and his wife Babli to drink pesticide. An order by the High Court to give police protection to the couple was in vain.

In June 2009 itself, another couple, Anita and Sonu, who had ‘violated’ the khap propriety, were tricked to return to their village, only to be stabbed to death in public!

Unable to withstand the severe pressure from the khap, Ravinder, who married Shilpa, attempted suicide, but failed. Then his he and his family had to leave for the house of a relative in another village. If and when they have to return to their own village, they need to have police security.

However, the ‘sarv khap mahapanchayat’ later reduced the punishment of ‘death’ to permanent expulsion for the couple Ravinder and Shilpa, and to 3 months for Ravinder’s father. Ravinder’s two uncles and his parents-in-law were ordered to pay fines.

Now, Ravinder and Shilpa live in Delhi, but they require police escort if they would want to visit their village.

Naseeb Singh, Ravinder’s uncle, an Army personnel and who had been fined by the khap panchayat, says that the khap elders have a ‘hidden agenda’ in holding on to the inhuman tradition.

According to him, the Gehlot migrants, who were his forebears, came to the village many generations ago. At present, there are about 100 Gehlot families residing in the village.

Naseeb Singh says that his family owns 100 bighas of land in the village, and the khap panchayat’s punishment might be aimed at grabbing his family’s land.

However, Chhatar Singh Pradhan, aged 92 and head of the Kadyan khap panchayat, denies all these allegations, averring that the community only wants to protect “our bhaichara” (brotherhood) and  ‘maryada’ (honour). He asserts that the khap panchayat does not ‘order’ any killings.

Notwithstanding what Chhatar Singh Pradhan says, the ground reality is that the barbarous writ of the khap panchayat runs, and both the police and the democratically elected gram panchayats (elected according to the Panchayati Raj laws) either remain silent spectators of or provide passive consent to the inhuman acts.

Vote-hungry politicians do play a big role in perpetuating the barbaric practice of ‘honour killings.’

In the last week of September 2009, in the run-up to the elections to the Haryana Assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was then the Chief Minister of Haryana, unabashedly gave a clean chit to the khap panchayats by declaring that the community councils – which have ordered honour killings in the past -  are still part of Haryana’s traditions and values.

Perhaps mainly emboldened by the political patronage they receive, khap panchayats in Haryana are now seeking legal sanction for their acts f barbarism.

Haryana’s khap panchayats have decided to draw ‘recommendations’ to make ‘necessary’ amendments (at the state-level) to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 so that their ‘rulings’ get legal sanction.