CHAPTER - SIX

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Right to live with human dignity is a basic inalienable right of every human being. As

the right is inalienable, no one can be deprived of his right either by Government or

by any other person. Right to life and liberty is a basic right of each and the right is

also ensured in various national and international documents on human rights. Indian

Constitution being a written Constitution which specifically mention about these basic

human rights under Part III of the Constitution.

Article 21 of the Constitution, which specifically talks about the Right to life and

liberty, interpreting the same the Supreme Court through its judicial activism

approach has ensured a dignified life to each and every human being.

While drafting the Constitution of India, the founding fathers of the Constitution also

had in their mind that United Declaration on Human Rights and the Constitution of

India is also considered as the finest piece of legislation which has been drafted

scrupulously by our Constitution makers. It is because of the vision of founding

fathers of our Constitution we are able to enjoy the social, economic and political

justice and liberty to an extent. But still there are are certain rights which are not

specifically mentioned in the Constitution. So, the Judiciary has given a liberal view

to Article 21 and have widened the scope of Article 21. It is only through the

judgments that rights like Right to live in healthy environment, right to privacy, right

to food and shelter which are included in Article 21 of the Constitution.

It being the basic right without which men cannot live as a dignified life being and it

also includes all those rights which make a man’s life meaningful worth of living.

Life doesn’t simply mean physical act of living and also does not mean mere animal

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existence rather it has a much wider sense which includes right to live with human

dignity in a healthy environment.

India being a country where we found unity in diversity as the basic feature of the

country i.e. where people of different religion, and community are residing together

despite of differences in their culture, traditions, languages and rituals. It is true that

the growth of nation cannot only be judged only on the growth of men in that country.

The concept of women dignity is not a new concept rather it can be correlated to

earlier Vedic period, where a woman had a special position in the society, as well as

in the house as reiterated in Rig Veda and other Vedas of earlier time. Men and

women were given equal status in the society and even women had equal opportunity

to participate in deciding all the matters of the house as well of the society. The

Constitution of India gives equal rights to every person from the beginning, but it is

very unfortunate to say that most of women in the country are unaware of their rights

either because of illiteracy or harsh tradition or because of various types of hostility

and unpleasant acts. Even today after sixty-five years of Independence, it is still hard

for us to change traditional attitude towards women, which indirectly give rise to

crime against them.

A countries growth can only be judged by the status which a woman enjoyed in the

country. Since earlier times there are number of rudimentary customary practices

which existed in the society and violates the basic human rights of the women which

may include Dowry, Sati practice, Child-marriages, Infanticide, Female Feticide,

Sexual abuses, Rape, Sexual- harassment, Honour Killing and violence against

women etc. Violation and discrimination against women is not only confined to the

usual form of beating, raping or murdering because these customary barbaric practices

has also degraded the dignity of women. In male dominating society dignity of female

is not respected even at the birth of the female child by committing female foeticide,

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or Infanticide and she is considered a burden on the family. In India, where in society

preference to son is given in the family. Despite having number of numbers of

national and international instrument which deals in protecting the rights of a women.

There were many social reformers who worked hard for protecting the women from

all the evil practices that existed in society against women. Though many of these evil

practices get the supports from the society itself and later this evil practice becomes

an evil custom which is followed in the society. Various examples for these evil

practices are child marriage, Sati Pratha, Dowry; female foeticides. It was Raja Ram

Mohan Roy who worked against the Sati Pratha which prevailed in the earlier time

and finally the Prohibition of Sati Act was enacted. Similarly, there were other

reformist like Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, etc. who worked for

uplifting the status of weaker section of the society and also the status of women in

society. They also worked for the rights of these people. In recent times there has

been a notable increase in killing of own family members by the other family

members or the close relatives in order to protect the honour of family and

community. This issue being the serious issue which needs to be taken care of by the

society and also by the law-making body. Honour killings generally takes place

where the couples, who undergo inter-caste marriage or inter-religion marriage or

have an extra marital relationship, pre-marriage sex, and love affairs etc. According to

some persons of the society it an immorality committed by them and which is also

against the customs and ritual of the society. These people must be punished for the

same. In honour killing generally couple is targeted but India being a male dominating

society where female are mostly the targeted victims of this crime.

Indian societies where more importance is given to the traditional and cultural

practices which are followed in earlier times and which people of the society are not

ready to leave these rudimentary practices. In most of the cases of honour killing the

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perpetrators are family members themselves who kills the other family members in

the name of honour of their family. The justification of their killing is that they have

brought shame to the family, but these types of people will never understand that

there is no honour in killing their own family members in the name of honour.

After the attainment of Independence our founding fathers of the Constitution thought

that India will lead into a modern country wherein no abuse of any type and

suppression will take place on basis of a person belonging to particular caste, creed,

religion, sex, etc. All the feudal practices and values of the past will be substituted by

new values of classlessness. While framing the Constitution the founding fathers have

enshrined the values of equality, and fraternity to assure human dignity to every

person. “Honour Killing” is a contemporary social civil in India whereby couple are

killed who voluntarily marry against the will of their parents and communities well,

mainly these couples who marry within the same gotra or outside their castes are

brutally killed’ by the villagers or communities they belong to this evil practice is

prevalent in North India mainly and several shocking incidents have been reported in

the recent years.

Killing of young people for the sake protecting the honour of the said community

cannot be justified on any ground. It is barbaric and there is nothing honourable.

Moreover, it is clear violation of various fundamental rights of individuals.

Well, each individual is born free, and the Indian constitution guarantees various

fundaments rights for every individual for his/her holistic development. Every person

has a right to marry person of his/her choice. “Honour Killing” a social evil is a clear

violation of human rights as well as basic fundamental rights.

Honour killing is the killing of one of the family members by other family member is

a belief that within has brought dashier to the family or the society. The person who

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one involved in these kinds of killings does not understand that this kind of acts are

basic in nature and are also violation of Human rights of the person.

Despite having International and National laws, Honour killings are not

confined to a particularly area but such incidents take place throughout the world.

There are certain countries in the world where their local criminal law makes

discrimination between men and women and award less punishment to men in case,

he has killed any of his female. Family member for the reason she was involved in

such acts which has brought dishonour to the family.

In order to protect women from any kind of abuse a special convention titled

convention on elimination of all form of discrimination against women and which

came into force of 3rd Sep – 1981. The convention also aims to ensure the state party

to the convention to take all necessary steps in order to remove any kind of

compulsory practice which violates the rights of the women.

United Nation in 2003, again took a resolution specially to eliminate crime

against women committed is the name of Honour. The resolution all call upon the

member states to take a serious action against the preparatory of crime. These types of

offences must be prosecuted and investigated properly and effectively. The state

should create awareness among the people about gender equality issue.

In past years attention is drawn, especially to eliminate all forms of discrimination and

specially the crime committed against women in the name of honour both at National

as well as International level, while taking the steps United Nation and its bodies has

called upon conventions and Resolution to address the issue and has also requested

the member states to take steps in order to eliminate such crime in their state.

However, the issue requires more attention and efforts in order to eliminate above

kind of violence committed against women.

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There are number of initiatives taken by the government of different states in helping

to curb violence against women. The United Kingdom also took imitative to provide

assistance to the other states through its Department for International Development to

deal with the crime committed against women. Pakistan being the one state to which

assistance was provided by United Kingdom to make a national strategy plan to curb

violence against women. It included both to provide assistance to women who are at

risk and it also to take preventive measures for the violence against women and it also

includes assistance for the project of gender equality, with an aim to strengthen local

organization in view to achieve access to political and economic decision making by

the women.

Non- governmental organizations along with the government are working together on

issue related to Honour crimes in Bangladesh, under the Public access justice project.

The project is specially designed to reduce violence against women by changing

police to perform their duty property.

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) also Funds the states to

take steps is order to eliminate any kind of violence against women. The UNIFEM

has also provided assistance to the organisations which are working to support and

assist women and girls from & Gaza strip who are the victims of honour crime.

But there are International and National Instrument which give equal right and station

to men and woman. Honour killing is the result of disobeying the male members of

family by doing certain acts which are not permitted by the male family members of

the family these acts can be considered as margining according to their own choice,

having extra – marital sexual relationship getting pregnant before marriage or eloping

with someone etc.

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By the increase in number of Honour killing cases in India, the National commission

for women decided to conduct a survey for the same issue and later drafted a Bill

titled “Prevention of Crime in the Name of Honour and Traditional Bill 2010”. The

Bill was specially drafted to deal with the cases of Honour killing and punishes those

who were found involved in such type of killings. As per the Bill, the burden his upon

the person to prove that he was not a part of such killing. The law commission of

India has also made several recommendations in its Report for bringing several

legislative provisions for dealing with this grave social civil. It is the high time when

the Indian Parliament should bring some guiding legislation or required amendments

in the existing laws to make “Honour Killing” punishable specifically. The recent

Supreme Court judgment has been proven to be the guiding light for countering the

issue of Honour killing.

However, the Bill did not have any mention about the unlawful assemblies

(Khap – Panchayat) and their influence in the society. Thus, the law commission

proposed a Bill titled “Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly (Interference with the

Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances) Bill, 2011” to deal with unlawful assemblies

which specially assemble to decide upon the matrimonial alliance which takes place

beyond the custom prevailing is the society and also punishes them.

An analysis of the proposed Bill was done by NUJS and these are certain

suggestions which are made to the Bill like, if a law is made, it should be capable of

achieving its objective i.e. what was the reason to make law and the law should also

be verified as if it is capable is achieving its objective i.e. what was the reason to

make law and the law should also be verified as if it is capable is achieving its

objective and what is the issue to which law has to deal and is case if the half issue

remains unaddressed, the purpose of making the law is defeated.

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 In case of the proposed Bill, it fails to secure freedom of choice and right to

have family of their choice. The Bill also fails to include the provisions for protection

and prevention and it only talks about the punitive provisions. There were certain

suggestions made by NUJS before enacting the law i.e. to declare act or omissions

which are prohibited by law, to include protection and preventive provision to the Bill

and also some punishment for the person who violate these protective and preventive

provisions.

It is to be stated that the term “Honour killing” has not be defined anywhere in any

statute. Henceforth there is no statutory definition of the term “Honour killing”. It

would not be wrong to point out that “Honour killing” is same as “killing” or

“murder” and there is no such difference between “Honour killing” and “murder”.

Well unfortunately, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 does not make any specific mention

of the offence of “Honour killing” and henceforth “Culpable Homicide”.

The Indian Judiciary constituting the Hon’ble Apex Court of India has played a

significant role in order to counter the problem of Honour killing in India. The

Hon’ble Supreme Court has, in its recent judgment dated 24th March, 2018, declared

Honour killing as unconstitutional and punishable under section 302 of Indian Penal

Code 1860.

Despite the measures taken by Indian Judiciary and law commission of India, there is

need for some concrete provisions and strict punishment which shall be deterrent in

nature.

There is no doubt that Honour killing is against the various provisions and the very

spirit of Indian Constitution. Honour killing is against and violative of Article 14

(Right to Equality) Article 19 (Fundamental freedoms) and Article 21(Right to life

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and personal liberty which is held to be inclusive of right to marry and right to settle

marital household).

Well, the constitution of India grants and ensures various fundamental rights

especially Right to life and Personal liberty under Article 21. The concept of killing

couples for the sake of Honour is violative of Article 21.

Well, the concept of Sagotra Marriage is age old and it is not new Individuals

must be free to marry persons of their choice. It is only some communities especially

in Northern India which do not approve of same gotra marriage.

In the light of latest/recent development, the concept of same-gotra marriage should

be accepted by the Khap Panchayat also.

‘Khap’ is not a new concept rather its existence can be seen from ancient times. It was

a body of people who had a control over community and society. They were

considered to be administrative authorities of the community or village. Generally,

they were elderly men of the community or village till, today also it has great hold

over people of and people above follow the verdict passed by them though Khap

Panchayat is an unconstitutional body having no legal stature still it has a great hold

become one elected Panchayati Raj Intuitions which one elected by people of that

area.

Even the apex court of the country has declared it as an unconstitutional institution

and the panchayat which they give to young couple who marry against the customer

of society is a barbaric and shameful act. By passing such verdicts they disobey the

Law of the land. Instead of taking law in their hand they should help in maintaining

law and order in the state. Khap Panchayat should consider such other issue like

female feticide, dowry death, domestic violence etc and should take an action against

those who are involved in such ablution acts. The rising incidence of commission of

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murders of persons marrying outside their caste or religion and other serious offences

perpetrated and the hostility generated against them and also causing harm to their

close relatives or a section of the community on considerations of caste and ‘gotra’

are matters of great concern. Those wh may be directly involved in the actual

commission of acts of violence or murder are either part of a community or section of

people and may also include members of family concerned in the case of objected

marriages. Very often such incidents and offences are not even taken cognizance at

the threshold. The domineering position and strength wielded by castevcombinatios

and assemblies, silence or stifle the investigating and prosecuting the agencies. In so

far as the caste or community Panchayat plays a constructive role in addressing the

common problems concerning the society or amicably settling the disputes between

the local inhabitants and families, dissuading the people frm criminal path, the

mission and the work of these village elders and Panchayatdars can be commended;

but if they exceeds their limit, as it is often happening, impose their decisions in

matters relating to matrimony and interference with the legitimate choices of

youngsters and indulge in acts of endangering their life and liberty, the law cannot

remain silent spectator in our progressive democratic polity wedded to cherished

constitutional values.

The trends which are followed by Judiciary in deciding the issue which effect

the society like adultery, triple talaq, honour killing etc is remarkable and are

appreciated while considering the issue of Honour killing the supreme court has time

to time issued the guidelines to the government to make special law and also to

protect the couple who marry by their own choice. The supreme court in a judgment

hold that these inter-caste marriages are in the National interest and should be

promoted. It has also declared Khap Panchayat as unconstitutional body and state

authorities should make strict action against them in case they gather to decide upon

the Matrimonial alliance of the couple and to punish them accordingly.

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 The court has also held that the incidents of Honour killings which take place

fall within the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’ and all the preparatory of crime

deserves death penalty.

So, even the Supreme Court has a strict approach towards such killings which

are taking place and also to award strictest possible punishment to all the accused so

that no more young, beautiful live are lost to this abominable practice that threatens to

weaken the roots of our vibrant democracy.

Love Commandos is an NGO who works protect the couple who are threatened for

marrying by their own choice. In India we have a group of people which includes,

lawyers, social activist, journalists, human rights altruists etc. who have married

together support the couples who have married against the customs prevailing in the

society and are constantly under the fear of threat from family and society. These

volunteers help the young couples to get married in case they are major and also

provide shelter to them for the safe custody. They have on which own web page as

well as helpline number on which these couples who are under threat make a call or

leave a message. Generally, the calls or message received by them is from Western

UP, Haryana and Rajasthan etc. After receiving the call or the message they call the

local police of that area to make them aware and also activate their own members

belonging to that area. According this group love will help to create a classless

society. So, the main objective of the organisation is to support people who perform

marriage against the customs prevailing in society. The organisation was formed in

2010. The organisation originally began to work under the name ‘Peace commandos’

and used to protect the lovers specially on Valentine’s Day but later organisation

named itself as ‘Love Commandos’ in 2010. The organisation was formed after a man

was fable changed for rape even when women made a statement that she is an adult

and the relationship was with her co menus But, the father of the girl made a

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statement that she being minor and the men was arrested. The organisation gained

more popularity when one of the eloped lovers were interviewed by the Aamir Khan

on the sets of Satyamev Jayate and the organisation have started reviving more calls

after the same human rights and their violation is not something new in the society but

the violation of them is prevailing from time immemorial. It was in 1689 ‘Bills of

Rights’ was introduced in England for the protection of the rights of a person. It was

also called Magna Carta of England

The main purpose of providing these basic rights to a person is to live a dignified life

and also to have peaceful co- existence with others but all in vein as generally woman

is considered to be a puppet at the hands of men and she has to according to the men.

If she tries to disobey him, she will be punished accordingly.

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SUGGESTIONS

Crime being an inevitable phenomenon and a society without crime cannot be

imagined. So, here in order to control the crime the state has authority to punish the
wrongdoer or the accused through the implementation of different punitive laws in the
society. It is an obligation imposed upon the state to maintain law and order in the
society. India being a customary state where there are number of customs that prevail
in the society and out of them there are certain customary evil practices like sati,
female foeticide, honour killing etc. that prevail in the society. In the name of
customary barbaric practice there are number of innocent couples who are killed by
the family members in the name of honour of the family and the community. Hence, it
is the time to stop such killings through the implementation of strict laws. Every
human being is born with certain basic human rights to live a dignified life. No person
has the right to deprive a person of life and liberty. Honour killing is generally
committed against those persons of the society who commits dishonouring activity
against the customary rituals of the society that are prevailing in the society and they
are punished by the members of the same society in the name of preserving and
protecting the honour of the family. The justification given by such culprits is that in
order to protect the honour of the family and society but such person need to
understand that there is no honour in such killings rather it is a brutal act which not
only violates the basic rights but is also punitive in nature. But still there are several
young couple who are killed in the name of family and honour. But now it is time to
take strict action against honour killings at national as well as at International level.

1. As, till date, we don’t have any special law to deal with the cases of Honour
killing.So, it becomes the prime duty of the legislature to make laws to deal with
the cases of honour killing and a strict punishment must be imposed upon the
persons who are found involved in the commission of crime.

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2. The Judiciary from time to time issued certain directions to the state and central
government to take strict action against the persons who are involved in such
killing. But taking punitive measure will not be sufficent to curb the crime rather
there should be certain precautionary measures which must be taken to protect the
life of the couples who have performed marriage by their choice and are
constantly threatened by the members of the family and society.

3. In the criminal proceedings, the burden is on prosecution to prove the guilt of the
accused but in dealing with cases of Honour Kiling and categorizing as special
cases, the burden must lie upon the accused to prove that he was not involved in
the commission of crime.

4. There must be special awareness programs that must be conducted by the

government to create awareness about reporting the rights of the other persons and
also that commission of offence like Honour killing, female foeticide, sexual
assault, child marriage etc is nothing but violation of the rights of the other person
which one provided to every person by the constitution.

5. State functionary must establish some special cell at district levels to provide
protection to the young couple who have married against the customs of the
society and the officers of these cells must be easily approachable.

6. The political party who in found dividing the society on the bases of caste or
religion during the compaign of the election should be disqualified from
contesting the election. Because members of the Khap Panchayatare also
supported by the persons of political parties in passing the decisions.

7. The politician from lower level to higher level must be given certain sessions to
teach them the lesson of brotherhood as India being a state with unity in diversity.

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8. Media have always played an important role specially to bring the cases related
the human rights violation or violation against woman. It isconsidered to be the
Fourth pillar of the democracy. Its main faction is to bring the truth infront of the
society. So, Social media can be used as a platform to create awareness among
people about respecting the rights of the other person and also to eradicate the evil
practice which are pervailing in the society by standing against these practices.

9. Honour killing cases can clearly be considered as ‘rarest of rare cases’ because
the motive behind the commission of crimes being the barbaric customary practice
prevailing in the society and death penalty should be awarded to all those people
who are involved in the commission of crimes.

10. The state government should about set up certain homes for the young couple
who have a threat to their life from family and society and about to provide then
the security of their life.

11. All the reported cases of honour killing must be investigated within a time limit
which must be set up for the offence. The prosecution must also perform his duty
seriously while prosecuting the case to make sure that the wrong doer be
punished.

12. The establishment of fast track courts can also be done to deal cases where
violence is specially committed against women and also to grant immediate relief
to the victim by framing the maximum time limit within which the trial must be
completed.

13. While trying the cases of honour killing, the court should not be lenient while
granting the bail to the persons who are involved in the commission of crime.

14. There should be some special rules which need to be made for the persons who
files a nomination for contesting the election and if found involve in commission

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 of violence against women or found discriminating on basis of caste, creed,
religion, sex should be barred by the election commission to file the nomination.

15. The parents should not have a strict attitude towards there childrenspecially when
they are adolescent and should also guide them in the right direction.

16. The prevalence of caste system in our society being a curse to society and also the
dominance of male over female in the society. Despite being the fact that the
constitution of India provides equal status to men and women. But till mindset of
the people of the society is changed and they come out of the customary practices
prevailing in the society. The people must be made to understand that there no
honour in killing in the name of safeguarding the Honour of the family.

17. The declaration of Khap Panchayat as unconstitutional bodyand the assembling

of the Khap Panchayat specially to discuss the matrimonial alliances which are
against the customary practices prevailing in the society. So, the bill which in
proposed by law commission titled “The Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly
(Interference with Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances Bill 2011) to protect these
young couples who are threatened by the Khap Panchayat and unlawful
assemblies and also punishes the assembling of them Khap Panchayat under the
proposed Bill.

18. The offence commited in the name of honour are still covered under the definition
of murder given u/s 300 IPC but the commission of offence in name of honourare
of special kind and are committed for the purposeof safeguarding the honour of
the family.So, the commission of these offence must be dealt with special section
which must be mentioned in the IndianPenal code,1860. More stringent
punishment to all the facilitator of such crime.

19. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 is applicable to any person irrespective to their
religion and marriage can be registered themunder section Special Marriage Act,

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 1954. But making a marriage registerable under the said Act between any two
persons is a positivesign against the customary evil practice but at the same time
the parties who intend to register their marriage under the said act have to serve a
notice for pried not less then 30 days to the marriage officer about the residing
status in his jurisdiction area But such time must be reduced as to discourage
people to take action against the said couple.

20. There should be some monthly reporting mechanisim which must be developed
specially in regard to the offence committed against women and also to find a
solution to reduce the rate of crimes committed against women.

21. The judiciary should continue to play a proactive role in making the law in the
cases where legislature has not enacted any Law.

22. Any kind of change in the society in not possible until and unless every citizen of
the country becomes a responsible citizen by respecting the rights of every person
and abo to take steps in case it any other person in found violating the rights of
individual on basis of castes, creed, sex, religion etc.

The study discloses that the government at state and central levelas well as judiciary is
playing its role quite efficiently and has always upheld the basic rights for living a
dignified life against any law.

The suggestions which are made in order to guarantee the efficient functioning of the
state. If the suggestions are applied without any discrimination and everyone is given
equal rights to live with human dignity and respect in society. It will become easy to
curb the customary evil practices from the society if the people are made aware of
their rights and also when equality will prevail within the society. The researcher
would like to propose the following suggestions and recommendations.