Chandigarh, August 20
A group of persons come together and direct the parents of a girl to ask her to revoke the vows of marriage. The girl threatens to end her life if her marital life is disturbed. The threat works to the extent that she is allowed to stay with her husband. However, the threat does not deter the group of persons from socially boycotting the parents of the girl.

The incident has not happened in neighbouring Pakistan, where the so-called "honour killings" frequently shock human right activists. It is a real-life incident which took place in Haryana. The girl belonged to a Fatehabad village. She was married by her parents to a boy of Kakrod village in Jind district.

It is not an isolated incident. Every month, if not week, such an incident takes place in one village or another in Haryana, particularly in the so-called Jat heartland.

In Jaundhi village in Jhajjar district, a two-year-old married couple, having a one-year-old child, was asked to dissolve their marriage by such a group of persons, which went to the extent of asking the wife to tie a rakhi to her husband. Following their defiance, the couple was ex-communicated. No law-enforcement agency came to their rescue.

Who are these persons, who wield extra-legal and extra-constitutional powers? They are members of self-styled "khap panchayats (gotra panchayats)". They have their own notions about who can marry whom and who cannot even though such marriages are considered perfectly valid and permissible under the law. The khap panchayats argue that their dictates are backed by "customary law". However, this "customary law" has no sanctity in the eyes of law.

A widow belonging to Rohtak village in Sonepat district, who had married her daughter in Naya Bans village of Rohtak district, was asked by a khap panchayat to seek a divorce decree for her daughter from a court. The husband sought the intervention of the court following which the girl went with him. Since the mother could not produce the daughter before the panchayat, as desired by it, she was ex-communicated and forced to leave her home.

The power of the khap panchayats is rising day by day. Apart from interfering in legal marriages, these panchayats have started asserting their authority in other fields also.

A person of Charkhi Dadri in Bhiwani district is an undertrial on the charges of rape and murder. His entire family was ex-communicated by a khap panchayat. Another khap panchayat exonerated the family and asked the other panchayat to revoke its “fatwa” against the family. The first khap panchayat not only refused to oblige but also collected a large number of people of its “gotra” to physically prevent the ex-communicated family from returning to the village

Most of the politicians, irrespective of their party affiliations, prefer to turn a blind eye to the activities of these khap panchayats, as they do not want to annoy a powerful and vocal group, by coming to the rescue of voiceless individuals. They feign indifference. However, the Haryana CPM has come out openly against the activities of the khap panchayats. Its secretary, Mr Inderjit Singh, who describes the khap panchayats as “an outdated medieval caste institution”, says though it is a social problem, the establishment and the ruling party cannot absolve themselves of their responsibility. The khap panchayats, he says, trample not only the constitutional rights but also the human rights.

Mr Roshan Lal Arya, secretary of the Sarvdeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, says it is a crime against society to forcibly dissolve legal marriages. “The action can be described simply as whimsical, having no moral, ethical or religious support. There is not even a single such instance in scriptures,” he says.