This article has been written by Ms. Nancy Maggo , a 5th year BBALLB Student from Law College Dehradun faculty of Uttaranchal University.
INTRODUCTION
Honor killings are a type of crime that are typically committed within the family and community. An individual is killed (murdered) for the sake of honor if they are a member of a family or community. Ane Nauta, a Dutch scholar of Turkish descent, coined the term “honour killing” in 1978 in order to distinguish such killing from other killing in the family and community. The belief that a man’s honor rests with his wife is one of the deepest roots of this social evil. The phrase “Customary Killing or Shame Killing” is another name for it. One of the most barbaric practices in society is honor killing, in which communities will kill a person or individual without hesitation even if they make the smallest attempt to disobey the rules, customs, or social order of the community. Such crimes are typically purposefully committed in public to serve as a deterrent to the victim and other members of the community. People frequently use the concepts of “honor,” “prestige,” and “shame” in communities or societies where honour killing is more likely to happen in order to assess their own behavior and that of their fellow citizens.
What is honour killing?
Honour Killing is defined as an act of killing a member of a family or social group by other members of the family or social group due to the assassin having the belief that the said member has violated the principle of a community or a religion and has brought dishonor or shame upon the family or community he or she belongs to.
Honor killings are “acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members who are held to have brought disgrace upon the family by being romantically involved with or choosing to marry a man outside their caste,” according to Human Rights Watch.
According to the 242nd Report of the Law Commission of India, the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu are where honor-based violence is most frequently
Causes of Honour Killing In India:-
- Adopting lifestyle or dressing in a way or manners that are deemed to be appropriate and unacceptable by the family or community.
- Opting out of an arrange marriage and being in a relationship that is disapproved by their family and relatives.
- Terminating or refusing to enter an arrange marriage or desires to marry a man of her own choice or marrying against the wish of the family.
- Seeking a divorce or separation without the consent of the husband.
- Rumors or allegation about a female family member in certain culture and society.
- Having sex outside marriage
Constitutional Provisions :-
Honour Killing violates some of the provisions of the constitution such as Article 14 (Right to Equality); Article 15 (1) &(3) ( No discrimination on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth); Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression); Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty).
Existing Penalties under Indian Penal Code
Indian Penal Code 1860 provides certain penalties which are applied in case of Honour-based crimes. These are as follows:
- Section 299- Section 304: It penalizes any person guilty of murder and any person guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Punishment: For murder life sentences or death and fine and for culpable homicide imprisonment for 10 years and fine.
- Section 307- It penalizes attempt to murder.
Punishment: Imprisonment for 10 years which may extend to life imprisonment and fine if a person is hurt.
- Section 308- It penalizes an attempt to commit culpable homicide.
Punishment: Imprisonment for 3 years or with fine or with both.
- Section 120 A and B: It penalizes people who are a party to any criminal conspiracy.
Punishment: Imprisonment of 6 months
- Section 34 &35: It penalizes act which is criminal in nature committed by a group of people together with common intention.
In India for the first time life sentence was given to the accused of Honour Killing in case of Manoj and Babli ( 2010) who were killed by the order of Khap Panchayat as they married each other against the wishes of their families.
Cases-
State of Maharashtra vs Eknath Kisan Kumbharkar 2019
In this case deceased Pramila was the daughter of Eknath Kumbharkar ( accused). In year 2013 she performed an inter-caste love marriage with Deepak Kamble resident of Kamgar Nagar. Her father never accepted this marriage as he believed that his daughter has brought disgrace or shame to his social reputation by marrying a man of different caste. So he murdered his pregnant daughter. The accused was held guilty under section 364 of IPC and was awarded life Imprisonment.
Kevin Joseph Case 2018
Kevin Joseph, a Dalit Christian, married a girl named Neeru Chacko, from an upper caste family, against the wishes of Neeru’s family. Kevin’s body was discovered near a river dam in Hyderabad’s Kollam District on May 28th. A special court was set up to fast track the hearing in this case and 10 accused were held guilty by the session court in an honour killing case and were awarded double life imprisonment.
T. Padmaja vs. Telangana State 2018
In this case, Perumalla Pranay Kumar was stabbed, slashed throat, and killed by his father-in-law’shiredkillers as he walked out of the hospital with his 5 months pregnant wife, Amrita, towards their car parked outside a hospital. Pranay and Amrita’s marriage was against Amrita’s family’s wishes because it was an intercaste marriage.
Conclusion-
As we all know there has been a steady increase in honour based crime in India in past few decades. Despite of all the efforts made to tackle such problems there are still a number of people who are killed every year in the name of honour. There are still some people who believed that marrying against the family wishes or in different caste is a crime which brings disgrace to a family so in order to restore the honour and respect lost due to the above mentioned acts they choose to kill the person who has violated the norms and conditions of the society.
The most shocking facts in the context of honour killing are as follows: Firstly, the offenders never regret their shameful acts rather their actions are glorified.
Secondly,the ways of killing are very heinous and brutal going beyond the limits of humanity.
Thirdly, in the name of “honor killing,” young people who are supposed to bring about social change in society are also killing their sisters’ cousins. Regardless of the cause or the perpetrator, it is critical to punish the criminals and educate the public about the cruelty of such socially evil behavior. Creating gender equality and passing a comprehensive law that will allow us to combat the growing threat of honor killings are urgently needed.
REFERENCE-
1.https://en.m.wikipedia.org
2.https://blog.finology.in
3.http://www.theguardian.com
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