khap panchayat
these are community
groups — usually comprising elderly men from the Jat community — that set the
rules in an area comprising one or more villages. Transgressors’ penalty can be
serious.
The exact origins of
khap panchayats are lost in the mists of time but popular belief dates this
social structure back to 600 AD.
They exist in western
UP, eastern Rajasthan but are most powerful in the Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bhiwani,
Sonepat, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, and Hisar districts of Haryana.
No. Khap panchayats
are social institutions that have no sanction under the law
Decisions
on Social Issues
The
Khap panchayts frequently deliberate on social issues to attempt to combat
social problems like female abortions, alcohol abuse, dowry, rape [9][10][11] and to promote education.[12] specially among girls[13]
The
largest Khap in Haryana is the Satrol Khap, which allowed inter-caste marriage
in 2014,[14] providing the marriage is not within the
same gotra, village, or neighboring villages[15]
A
recent 2015 Sarva Khap meeting launched a movement "Save daughters,
educate daughter" movement.
The Supreme Court otermed Khap panchayats
as kangaroo courts and declared them illegal. The Supreme Court ruling said
that Khap panchayats are wholly illegal and have to be ruthlessly stamped out.
A bench of justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said
in a judgement that the new trends of kangaroo courts, honour killings,
"khap" panchayaths in northern India and "katta" panchayats
in Tamil Nadu were
barbaric
and illegal, the perpetrators of which required the harshest punishment.
The
Supreme Court 2011 on Tuesday termed
Khap panchayats as kangaroo courts and declared them illegal. The Supreme Court
ruling said that Khap panchayats are wholly illegal and have to be ruthlessly
stamped out.
A bench of justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said
in a judgement that the new trends of kangaroo courts, honour killings,
"khap" panchayaths in northern India and "katta" panchayats
in Tamil Nadu were barbaric and illegal, the perpetrators of which required the
harshest punishment.
A kangaroo
court
A kangaroo
court is a judicial tribunal or assembly that
blatantly disregards recognized standards of law or justice, and often carries
little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides. Merriam-Webster defines it as a "mock court in which the principles of law and
justice are disregarded or perverted"
2o15 mains question
khap Panchayats have been
in the news for functioning as extra-constitutional authorities, often
delivering pronouncements amounting to human rights violations. Discuss
critically the actions taken by the legislative, executive and the judiciary to
set the things right in this regard.
