SC cracks the whip on states to rein in khap panchayats
Gyanant Singh | New Delhi, April 20, 2011 | Updated 09:54 IST
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed state governments to start
fixing accountability against administrative and police officials
failing to check caste (khap) panchayats from encouraging and carrying
on honour killings and other atrocities in an institutionalised way.
A bench presided over by Justice Markandey Katju asked state
government to immediately suspend the district magistrate/collector
and SSP/ SPs of the district as well as other officials concerned if
they fail to prevent such incidents despite prior knowledge of the
happening.
Apart from initiating criminal proceedings against those directly
responsible for such incidents, there was a need to fix accountability
against officials failing to prevent such incidents and not
apprehending the culprits promptly, the court stressed.
The court said state governments should suspend such officials,
chargesheet them and proceed against them departmentally.
The direction was passed while upholding the conviction in a case
concerning an assault on a Scheduled Caste person by a group of
backward caste persons in Tamil Nadu. The accused beat the victim
after abusing and humiliating him.
After dealing with the case at hand, the court went on to discuss the
ills plaguing our society.
"This is the age of democracy and equality. No people or community
should be today insulted or looked down upon, and nobody's feelings
should be hurt. This is also the spirit of our Constitution and is
part of its basic features," the bench said.
The bench expressed displeasure over prevalence of, what it called,
the two tumbler system in Tamil Nadu. "This system is that in many tea
shops and restaurants there are separate tumblers for serving tea or
other drinks to Scheduled Caste persons and non- Scheduled Caste
persons… In our opinion, this is highly objectionable and is an
offence under the SC/ ST Act," it said.
The court recalled that in an earlier case it had directed protection
of those marrying outside their caste. There was a need for harsh
punishment for those behind honour killings, the court had said.
After issuing directions for fixing liability against officers failing
to check atrocities by khap panchayats, the court directed that a copy
of the order be sent to all state chief secretaries, home secretaries
and director- generals of police. The state should in turn circulate
it to all officers up to the level of district magistrates and SSP/ SP
for strict compliance.
The bench said the order should also be brought to the notice of all
high court judges.
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