Nobody has right to interfere if two adults get married: SC
‘Courts Will Rule If A Marriage Is Illegal, Not Caste Groups’
Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com
6.02.2018
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday tore into khap panchayats, asking them not to assume the role of conscience keepers of society. It said courts will go by the law and not tradition and ‘gotra’ considerations to determine the legality of a marriage.
The SC sharply censored khaps for attempting to wear the mask of “society’s conscience keeper” to legitimise support for violent action against couples marrying within what the clan groups see as prohibited degrees of relationships.
Senior advocate Narender Hooda, appearing for some khap panchayats from Haryana, said khaps encouraged inter-caste and inter-faith marriages as they had permitted Haryanvi men to marry women from other states given the skewed sex ratio in the state. More than 2.5 lakh women from other states were married to men in Haryana, he said in a bid to argue that khaps were not regressive.
“What the khaps oppose is ‘sapinda’ or ‘sagotra’ marriage between men and women or when they are within the prohibited degrees of relationship, a bar which is supported by genetic science. Marriage between close relatives or siblings has been described as a disaster genetically. Khaps try to uphold centuries of tradition and act as conscience keepers of society,” he said.
A bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra was unimpressed by the claims. It asked, “Who has appointed you as guardians of society or its conscience keeper? Do not assume that role. We are not concerned about tradition, gotra, sapinda or prohibited degrees of relationship. If a marriage is not permissible under law, then there are courts to annul it. Khaps have no business determining the legality of a marriage.”
The SC again said the Centre was not taking the issue seriously when additional solicitor general Pinky Anand sought two more weeks to submit suggestions on crimes against inter-caste, inter-faith or ‘sagotra’ marriages. Constituents of gotras are broadly defined as having descended from a common male ancestor with khaps often ruling that marriage within this community is unacceptable.
‘We will constitute a high-level committee to protect couples’
Social activist Madhu Kishwar intervened and told the court that brutal killing of couples in inter-caste or inter-faith marriages should not be referred respectably as ‘honour’ killing’. “Strong action is needed to stop these hate crimes. Only 3% of these crimes are because of ‘sagotra’ marriage. Rest 97% is triggered by religion, caste and other issues. Take for example the Ankit Saxena killing in Delhi,” she said.
But the court said it was not concerned with individual crimes. “We think we will constitute a high-level police officers’ committee to deal with all these law and order issues and devise a mechanism to protect couples in distress,” the bench said.
“We are not concerned with khaps. But we want to make it clear that no one, either individually or collectively, can interfere in a marriage between two consenting adults,” it added. This drew support from Anand, who said the Centre was in favour of protecting civil and fundamental rights of every individual.
The SC repeatedly reminded all about its ruling in the Nitish Katara murder case. On October 3, 2016, the SC had upheld life sentence to murder convict Vikas Singh and said, “One may feel ‘my honour is my life’ but that does not mean sustaining one’s honour at the cost of another. Freedom, independence, constitutional identity, individual choice and thought of a woman, be a wife or sister or daughter or mother, cannot be allowed to be curtailed.”
“That apart, neither family members nor members of the collective has any right to assault the boy chosen by the girl. Her individual choice is her self-respect and creating dent in it is destroying her honour. And to impose so called brotherly or fatherly honour or class honour by eliminating her choice is a crime of extreme brutality, more so, when it is done under a guise.”
‘Courts Will Rule If A Marriage Is Illegal, Not Caste Groups’
Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com
6.02.2018
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday tore into khap panchayats, asking them not to assume the role of conscience keepers of society. It said courts will go by the law and not tradition and ‘gotra’ considerations to determine the legality of a marriage.
The SC sharply censored khaps for attempting to wear the mask of “society’s conscience keeper” to legitimise support for violent action against couples marrying within what the clan groups see as prohibited degrees of relationships.
Senior advocate Narender Hooda, appearing for some khap panchayats from Haryana, said khaps encouraged inter-caste and inter-faith marriages as they had permitted Haryanvi men to marry women from other states given the skewed sex ratio in the state. More than 2.5 lakh women from other states were married to men in Haryana, he said in a bid to argue that khaps were not regressive.
“What the khaps oppose is ‘sapinda’ or ‘sagotra’ marriage between men and women or when they are within the prohibited degrees of relationship, a bar which is supported by genetic science. Marriage between close relatives or siblings has been described as a disaster genetically. Khaps try to uphold centuries of tradition and act as conscience keepers of society,” he said.
A bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra was unimpressed by the claims. It asked, “Who has appointed you as guardians of society or its conscience keeper? Do not assume that role. We are not concerned about tradition, gotra, sapinda or prohibited degrees of relationship. If a marriage is not permissible under law, then there are courts to annul it. Khaps have no business determining the legality of a marriage.”
The SC again said the Centre was not taking the issue seriously when additional solicitor general Pinky Anand sought two more weeks to submit suggestions on crimes against inter-caste, inter-faith or ‘sagotra’ marriages. Constituents of gotras are broadly defined as having descended from a common male ancestor with khaps often ruling that marriage within this community is unacceptable.
‘We will constitute a high-level committee to protect couples’
Social activist Madhu Kishwar intervened and told the court that brutal killing of couples in inter-caste or inter-faith marriages should not be referred respectably as ‘honour’ killing’. “Strong action is needed to stop these hate crimes. Only 3% of these crimes are because of ‘sagotra’ marriage. Rest 97% is triggered by religion, caste and other issues. Take for example the Ankit Saxena killing in Delhi,” she said.
But the court said it was not concerned with individual crimes. “We think we will constitute a high-level police officers’ committee to deal with all these law and order issues and devise a mechanism to protect couples in distress,” the bench said.
“We are not concerned with khaps. But we want to make it clear that no one, either individually or collectively, can interfere in a marriage between two consenting adults,” it added. This drew support from Anand, who said the Centre was in favour of protecting civil and fundamental rights of every individual.
The SC repeatedly reminded all about its ruling in the Nitish Katara murder case. On October 3, 2016, the SC had upheld life sentence to murder convict Vikas Singh and said, “One may feel ‘my honour is my life’ but that does not mean sustaining one’s honour at the cost of another. Freedom, independence, constitutional identity, individual choice and thought of a woman, be a wife or sister or daughter or mother, cannot be allowed to be curtailed.”
“That apart, neither family members nor members of the collective has any right to assault the boy chosen by the girl. Her individual choice is her self-respect and creating dent in it is destroying her honour. And to impose so called brotherly or fatherly honour or class honour by eliminating her choice is a crime of extreme brutality, more so, when it is done under a guise.”
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