Protect couple facing ‘khap’ threat, SC tells Haryana

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, June 5

The Supreme Court today asked the Haryana government to protect a young couple allegedly facing threat from a ‘khap’ for inter-caste marriage.

A Vacation Bench comprising Justices Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy also issued notice to the state government seeking its response within four weeks to the contentions of the couple – Bharti(19) from Faridabad and Ashish from Ghaziabad (UP).

The couple’s counsel, S Dubey, pleaded with the Bench that his clients had gone into hiding following the threat to their life from the ‘khap.’ In their joint criminal writ petition, the couple did not identify the ‘khap.’

Doing her second-year graduation from a college in Faridabad, the girl married Ashish at an Arya Samaj temple here on May 11 against the wishes of her parents. Employed at the AIIMS here, Ashish said unidentified persons had tried to meet him at the hospital but he refused to meet them due to the threat.

A PIL against honour killings and the role of ‘khap’ panchayats is pending in the SC and the court has asked the Centre to consider enactment of a separate law or amendments to existing laws to deal with the problem.

Appearing in the case, ‘khaps’ of Haryana and UP have clarified that they were only against same-gotra marriages, not inter-caste weddings. The UPA II government had set up a group of ministers (GoM) to deal with the issue, but nothing came out it.