Rattled by the spate of honour killings in northern states, the UPA government is preparing a legislative route to amend Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provide a deterrent punishment against khap panchayats, which order death penalty to young couples who marry defying caste barrier, reports Times of India.
"We are seriously considering amending Indian Penal Code to make honour killing a separate and distinct offence and provide deterrent punishment," a top home ministry source told TOI.
The preparation to draft a bill to amend IPC to make honour killings distinct from ordinary murders by widening its definition under Section 302 gained speed after attorney general G E Vahanvati recently gave an opinion answering in the affirmative the home ministry's query `whether legislative intervention was necessary to make honour killings a specific offence'.
Honour killings, mostly reported from Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, rural Delhi and some areas in southern India, had evoked sharp reaction from home minister P Chidambaram.
In Rajya Sabha, Chidambaram had said on July 28 last year, "We deplore honour killings. We do not recognise the right of caste panchayats to take upon itself to pronounce whether a man or a woman should live together or a woman has committed an act, which, allegedly bring dishonour to the family or community. That is not the function of caste panchayat. No caste panchayat has a right to pronounce upon the conduct of individuals."
While considering an amendment to IPC, the legal brains would take into account various facts -- whether it is possible to treat leaders of khap panchayat, if not all participants, not as accomplices or abettors but as main conspirators in the honour killing and whether to punish those who justify such brutal murders as in the case of the banned custom of sati.
Another suggestion receiving attention of the home ministry is whether to put the burden of proof on the accused in honour killing cases since these crimes often remain closely guarded family secrets making it difficult for the police to get witnesses.
The push for the possible amendment of IPC to make honour killings a separate offence and make it distinct and wider from ordinary murder came from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which in the recent past had been flooded with applications from young couples seeking protection from caste panchayats and caste-blinded relatives. The HC had said it was time that society protected such harassed couples.
According to the principles followed by khap panchayats, there could be no marriage alliance between a man and a woman if they were of same gotra or belonged to different castes. Even if they had same caste and differentgotras, they still cannot marry if they resided in the same or adjoining villages.
