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HIDAYATULLAHNATIONALLAWUNIVERSITY
RAIPUR, CHHATTISGARH
Acknowledgments
I would like to humbly present this project with the grace of the almighty to Mrs Sonal Das I
would first of all like to express my most sincere gratitude to Mrs. Sonal Das for her paramount
support and encouragement. I am thankful for being given the honour of doing this research
paper on Honour Killing In India. I am thankful to the library staff and committee members for
all the conveniences which played a major role in the completion of this paper.
Last but by far the most important, I would like to thank God for keeping me in good health and
senses to complete this project. I present this project with a humble heart.
SANAT KURRE
Contents
Introduction.....
History of honour killing..
Honour killing in Indian societies
Main Reasons for honour killing.
Laws presently on honour killing
Judicial precedence and cases.
Honour killing solution
Conclusion
Bibliography
Table of Cases
Introduction
An honor killing or honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a member of
a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators (and potentially
the wider community) that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community.
Honour killings are directed mostly against women and girls. Human Rights Watch defines
honour killings as the acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members
against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A
woman can be targeted by her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an
arranged marriage, being the victim of sexual assault, seeking a divorce even from an abusive
2 Damien McElroy (31 March 2008). "Saudi woman killed for chatting on Facebook". London: The Daily
Telegraph. Retrieved 27 September 2008
The Indian state of Punjab also has a large number of honor killings. According to data
compiled by the Punjab Police, 34 honor killings were reported in the state between 2008 and
2010: 10 in 2008, 20 in 2009, and four in 2010. Bhagalpur in the eastern Indian state of Bihar has
also been notorious for honor killings. Recent cases include a 16-year-old girl, Imrana,
from Bhojpur who was set on fire inside her house in a case of what the police called 'moral
vigilantism'. The victim had screamed for help for about 20 minutes before neighbours arrived,
only to find her smouldering body. She was admitted to a local hospital, where she later died
from her injuries. In May 2008, Jayvirsingh Bhadodiya shot his daughter Vandana Bhadodiya
and struck her on the head with an axe. Honor killings occur even inDelhi.
4
Honor killings take place in Rajasthan, too. In June 2012, a man chopped off his 20-year-old
daughter's head with a sword in Rajasthan after learning that she was dating men. According to
33Indian village proud after double "honour killing". Reuters. 16 May 2008
4 "Honour Killings in India". Daily Life in India. 16 June 2010. Retrieved3 September 2010.
So far, there is no specific law to deal with honour killings. The murders come under the general
categories of homicide or manslaughter. Sometimes the honour killings are also done by a mob
and so when a mob has carried out such attacks, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a culprit. The
collection of evidence becomes tricky and eyewitnesses are never forthcoming. But Honour
Killings are against International Law on Human Rights and against United Nation agendas. But
still even though we dont have any law to deal with it specifically in India but we have judicial
precedence over it. There are also some bills which are in the latent stage against the honour
killings, which are planned to be introduced in the parliament sooner.
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Reasons For Increasing Incidents Of Honour Killings : Religionalization of laws such Hindu
personal law,muslim personal law,christan personal law etc.Womens are forced to consider
every aspect of their life from the perspective of their "honour "as a quality which is felt to
reflect both the entirety of their social worth and reputations of male members of their family.
male reputation is depend upon female "honour". female "honour" is passive in nature cantering
on qualities such as subordinacy , modesty ,and patience, whereas male "honour" is active and
dynamic, centring on qualities such as self-assertion, dominance and social status. once female
honour is lost through any act which is considered dishonouring in her society, there is no way it
can be regained. Other members of her family may face pressure to take violent action which
will restore their position in society.
Law presently on honour killing
So far, there is no specific law to deal with honour killings. The murders come under the general
categories of homicide or manslaughter. Sometimes the honour killings arc also done by a mob
and so when a mob has carried out such attacks, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a culprit. The
collection of evidence becomes tricky and eyewitnesses arc never forthcoming. But Honour
Killings are against International Law on Human Rights and against United Nation agendas. But
still even though we dont have any law to deal with it specifically in India but we have judicial
precedence over it. There arc also some bills which are in the latent stage against the honour
killings, which are planned to be introduced in the parliament sooner. Let us discuss them under
the following heads.
International laws
"Honour killings" are a recognized form of violence against women in international human rights
law because they violate women's rights to life and security of the person. International law
obligates states to protect women from gender-based violence, including by family members, and
to disqualify "honour" as a legal defence for acts of violence against women. 4. Honour killings
are an extreme and brutal abuse of human rights, violating the most basic of human rightsthe
right to lifeas well as every other article in the International Convention on Human Rights
(1948). The presence of laws that treat honour killings leniently is also a brazen disregard of the
International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (1966), protecting individuals against the
use of the death penalty except for the most serious of crimes. Honour killings also violate the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979).
Article1
of
theConvention
states
10
that
Normally the cases of honour killings were admitted inside the courts in India, in the forms of
homicide or manslaughter. But after seeing the nature and the facts of the killings, courts were
also used to follow the flimsy, so-called honour of the family in the name of which the heinous
crime was done and the perpetrators usually were rescued. This we can observe from the
judgement of Supreme Court, in which Justice VS Sirpurkar and Justice Deepak Verma said it
wasnt a rarest of rare case. The murders were the outcome of a social issue like a marriage with
a person of so-called lower caste. Such killings do not fall in the category of the rare of the rarest
as the family of the girl has to face lot of taunts and humiliation in the society for the acts of the
girl. However, time has come when we have to consider these social issues relevant while
considering death sentence in such circumstances, they said. In other words, the court classified
the shameful caste-based honour killings as different from other homicides in which the
maximum punishment of death can be awarded. In this case the brother of the girl, who belonged
to Uttar Pradesh, had killed five members including his brother-in-law who was a Scheduled
Caste.
This was the earlier tradition, but nowadays from the various judgements of the courts we can
say that now the honour killings are not termed differently. Courts through their judgements
had reiterated that killing anyone even in the name of honour is the violation of the constitution
of India and anyone going contrary to the constitution will be punished. This we can see from the
following cases.
In a landmark judgment, in March 2010, the Karnal District Court ordered the execution of the
five perpetrators in an honour killing case of Manoj & Babli, while giving a life sentence to the
khap (local caste-based council) head who ordered the killings of Manoj Banwala (23) and Babli
(19), two members of the same clan who eloped and married in June 2007 and later their
mutilated bodies were found a week later from an irrigation canal. In her verdict, district judge
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12
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15
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It is counterproductive to suggest that the family and community have no right to regulate
sexuality at all. Even the appearance of suggesting that will undermine the credibility of any
effort to combat crimes of honour, thereby rendering the women of communities implicated in
such practices even more vulnerable to violence in the name of protecting the honour than they
are at present. Welchman and Hossain (2006) state, that the role of religious rightpolitical
groupings that invoke religion and religious traditions as justifications for their activities,
including those which seek to marginalize or obliterate the rights of women or minorities is key
here, as well as the role of those who challenge the validity of such positions. Hence by the use
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elimination of such crimes: A combined external and domestic political struggle that makes
honour crime and unfair subsequent legal treatment of women a shame on the nation
(Nadelmann, 1990, p. 480; Weldon, 2006); Placing serious penal sanctions against such crimes,
taking administrative measures to prevent the crime, and ensure conviction; Active police, local
government and the entire government apparatus committed towards this goal; Imparting
education that shuns the violence against women, de-objectifies them and recognizes the Kantian
thought of the moral autonomy of the people at large, especially people from rural areas;
Active collaborative participation of civil society and international bodies relating to
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10The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.
11The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of
them.
12Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.
13No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.
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Conclusion
As already declared by the honorable court that there is nothing honorable in honor killing.
Moreover this is the direct violation of human rights of a person who by virtue of being a human
have the basic birth right of right to live. And in cases of honor killings violation of the right by
the very family member and in most cases by the father or by the real brother only because of
they don't allow their daughter or female member to marry according to her will. This is the
offence of murder by the members of family and direct violation of fundamental human rights.
Honor killings have become commonplace in many parts of the country, particularly in
Haryana, western U.P., and Rajasthan. Often young couples who fall in love have to seek shelter
in the police lines or protection homes, to avoid the wrath of kangaroo courts. We have held in
Lata Singhs case(26(1) that there is nothing honourable in honour killings, and they are
nothing but barbaric and brutal murders by bigoted, persons with feudal minds. In our opinion
honour killings, for whatever reason, come within the category of rarest of rare cases deserving
death punishment. It is time to stamp out these barbaric, feudal practices which are a slur on our
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