Illegal for khaps to stop marriages: SC

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled it was illegal for so-called khap panchayats, or assemblies of village elders, to interfere in marriage between consenting adults, and to summon and punish them, as it laid down measures to stop killings done in the name of “honour”.

Right of an adult to choose his or her life partner is above “class honour,” a three-judge bench headed d by chief justice Dipak Misra said. It ordered the guidelines – to check unlawful interference in the lives of inter-faith and inter-caste couples by khap panchayats — will remain in force until a suitable legislation is put in place.

Khaps are community groups — usually comprising elderly men from the Jat community — in northern parts of India that act as quasi-judicial bodies and have a say on several issues, including marriage, dowry and the education of children, based on traditional customs. Khap panchayats have in the past handed down harsh punishments to couples for same-gotra (sub-caste) marriages, and even marriages between a man and a woman belonging to the same village. The initial reaction of khaps in western UP to the court ruling was one of defiance.

Khap panchayats should not take the law into their hands and cannot assume the character of a law implementing agency for that authority has not been conferred upon them under any law, the court said.