Even as the Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a PIL seeking direction to the Centre for amending the Hindu Marriage Act to prevent same “gotra marriages”, an NGO approac-hed the top court for stopping “honour killings” on the pressure of khap panchayats.
A vacation bench of Justices Deepak Verma and K.S. Radhakrishnan refused to admit a petition by Nar-esh Kadyan and Sukhdev Singh from Haryana, claiming that same “gotra marriage” had become a major issue in their state as well as Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
To prevent the trend among youth to defy the centuries old tradition not to marry within the same “gotra”, the Central government should be directed to bring a necessary amendments in the Hindu Marriage Act, their counsel K.T.S. Tulsi pleaded.
But the apex court was not impressed with his argument and advised the petitioners to to approach the Punjab and Haryana HC, court of appropriate jurisdiction for them.
Meanwhile, Shakti Vahini, which has a long track record of working for the welfare of women and children, filed a PIL in the apex court seeking its intervention to stop “brutal killing” of young couples in the name of “social honour”.
Since the governments of the states where the “feudal tendencies of honour killings” were prevalent, had failed to take any remedial measures under pressure of the “khap panchayats” the apex court’s intervention had become necessary to direct the Centre as well as the states concerned to take steps to curb the “horrendous” practice.
“The killing of couples and individuals in the name of honour was violation of the fundamental right of individual to live with dignity and it was the duty of the state to protect them,” Shakti Vahini in its PIL stated.