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The central government's decision to promulgate an ordinance against the growing menace of 'honour killing' is a welcome step as it will act as a deterrent against the perpetrators of the murders of brutal killing of innocent young couples whose only fault is that they muster courage to tie the nuptial knot against the wishes of their family.
After the recent spurt in the so-called honour killing in the name of salvaging the honour of their community in the northern part of the country, I think the government is seized of the growing social evil. The government is seriously contemplating to promulgate an ordinance to make the necessary changes in the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Senior ministers like Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Home Minister P Chidambaram are working overtime to strengthen Section 302 of the IPC, which deals with hte punishment for murder.
In a civilised society, there is no place for honour killing and whoever does this should be brought under the law and should be punished. The so-called 'khap (caste) panchayatd' prevalent in several villages in the north Indian states should not be allowed to take law into their own hands. In most of the honour killing cases, it is reported that the honour killing is done at the behest of these 'khap panchayats' in the name of protecting the honour of a particular community. There should be an end to this primitive method of punishment, all these 'panchayats' members should be brought to book for an honour killing in a village.
For that, the proposed ordinance should address this issue and all these khap panchayats should be brought under the ambit of law. It is a good move on the part of the government that it wants a new section of IPC to define such crimes and the ordinance will also amend the Evidence Act to put the onus of proof on the accused instead of the victim as is the system at present.
Siezed of the seriousness of the issue, the Supreme Court some time back had also recommended to amend the Evidence Act so that the caste-provoked killings can be dealt with sternly. It has also suggested that the caste panchayat should be held guilty of any honour killing and all the members of the panchayats should be held guilty of the crime, whether or not they favoured the honour killing.
The proposed ordinance will also address the issues of social boycott of the couple, torture and discrimination. It would be a separate crime under the IPC and these found guilty could be punished with death or life imprisonment.
The proposal is good. The sooner it is implemented, the better for the society.
