Khap Adjudication in India: Honouring the Culture with Crimes

Kavita Kachhwaha

Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, India

Abstract:

Metropolitan liberals with a ludicrously quixotic vision of countryside life could only envisage the rural India as being Arcadian. Just five minutes and you are into an ambiance tainted by bigotry, since no belief or custom has ever been doubted, barely re-examined here! Khap Panchayats, the earlier credible bodies with a social outlook, is now highly politicized. In the name of preserving Indian culture, they are perpetrating crimes and thereby nurturing a culture of crimes for descendants. Between tradition and modernity, suffocating control and fear of its loss, there is an all-out war in India and across the world. While India is shining, some of its badlands are mired in the medieval past, acting like the Taliban. 'Honour killings' are human-rights abuses, atrocities against women, denial of an individual's freedom of choice, and in contravention of the law. As India tries to fly high, such disgraceful practices will derogate its international reputation. To ignore for too long the frequency of such monstrous acts will cost us heavily. Though Indian judiciary has come up as a silver lining, yet much is left. Since time requires us to break the shackles of slumber and respond efficiently, my research would focus on exploring specific (legal) measures to deal with such traitors of the constitution; and would unveil mysteries like: Why do Khaps still exist in these times of formal democracy in India? Why the elected panchayats had a little scope in the matters of governance that are otherwise usurped by Khaps for dispensing (in)justice an in inhumane and unconstitutional manner? This article will try to provide some answers and some solutions.

Keyword:

Khap Panchayats; honour killings; crimes of culture; injustice