My article aims at highlighting the legal provisions to
tackle with the crime of Honour Killing. So what actually
the Hounour Killing is ? Honour Killing is “unlawful killing
of a woman for her actual or perceived morally or
mentally unclean and impure behaviour”. Honour killings
are murders by families on family members who are said
to have brought shame on the honour and name of
family (Sheri & Bob Stritof 2005). These are acts in which
“a male member of the family kills a female relative for
tarnishing the family image”. The term is also defined as
the purposeful pre-planned murder, generally of a
woman, by or at the command of members of her family
stimulated by a perception that she has brought shame
on the family. It is a extra judicial punishment of a female
relative for assumed sexual and marriage offences. These
offences which are considered as a misdeed or insult
includes sexual faithlessness ,marrying without the will of
the parents or having a relationship that the family
considers to be inappropriate and rebelling against the
tribal and social matrimonial customs. Honour killings
elucidates that the custom is not related to a feudal
societal arrangement.With a highlighting aspect, The
Constitution of India has ample provisions allowing an
individual to exercise his/her choice independent of
caste, religion or gender and protection from honour
related crimes. Honour Killings are cases of homicide and
murder which are grave crimes under the Indian Penal
Code because the acts are done with the intention of
murdering the victims as they have purportedly brought
dishonour upon the family. Article 14 of the Indian
Constitution guarantees to every person the right to
equality before the law or the equal protection of the
laws. Every person, whatever be his or her status or
situation is subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary
courts. This right to equality is thus documented as one
of the fundamental features of the Indian Constitution.
Honour Killings are thus hideously against this very
Constitutional Right ,provided for the protection of
Indian citizens. Honour killings are mainly directed
towards women and thus give rise to gender violence.
Such brutal murders, under the garb of saving the
honour of the family, are clearly against the
Constitutional provisions enshrined in Article 21 (right to
life and personal liberty) . Section 300(Murder definition),
301(Culpable homicide by causing death of person other
than person whose death was intended),
302(Punishment for murder) of I.P.C(Indian Penal Code)
deals with these offences but there is no specific
codification for honour killing but there were proposal
about the same after a landmark judgement of Supreme
Court of India Sanjay vs State Of Haryana on 28 July,
2011 in Punjab-Haryana High Court. In this case the
ghost of honour killing has swallowed three innocent
teenagers, namely, Bodhi alias Vinod, Suman and Budha
alias Satish. Appellants under Section 302 and Section
304 IPC and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment
for life and to pay a fine of Rs.5000/- each, in default of
payment of fine or a part thereof, they were to undergo
further imprisonment for a term of six months.
The root of the cause for the increase in the number of
honour killings is because the formal governance has not
been able to reach the rural areas and as a result. Thus,
this practices continues though it should have been
removed by now.
