Cultural crimes are essentially those that aim to be situated within or under the influence of a particular culture. As everyone is aware, the nation has been startled by the recent wave of honour killings.
Honour killing has been a national hot-button issue for the past ten or so years. It mostly affects regions of South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The result of the schizophytic environment of typical societies, where some behavioral patterns are regarded as dishonorable to families and communities, is honour killing. The “maintenance of strict codes of gender-specific conduct to control the notions of shame and property” is basically what “honour” entails.
Honour Killing: About
- One kind of cultural crime practiced in the nation is honor killing. The murder of a (usually female) family member by one or more other (mostly male) family members, because the perpetrators (and possibly the larger community) feel the victim has brought dishonor upon the family, clan, or community, is known as an honour killing, also known as a customary killing.
- Purpose: The purpose of the killing is to regain the family’s honour and respect that were lost because of the individual who fell in love with a member of a different caste. There is a complete ban on the practice of Sati in India, although there are still a lot of cases of honor killing, even though both crimes are only done by triggering.
Honour Killing: Reasons Behind It
Bringing dishonor to the family member is the major cause of “Honour Killing” as discussed by various RJS Coaching institutions for the judiciary. Dishonors can take several forms for various families. Among the most important problems with “Honour Killing” are the following:
- Inter-caste marriages
- Accusations of premarital or extramarital affairs between men and women
- The inability of women to choose their own spouses
- Fear of losing one’s caste
- Unconnected pregnancies to legally wedded husbands
- Homosexuality
- Cohabitation
- Patriarchal society
- Being the sole victim in a rape
- Divorce from a violent spouse.
Laws Pertaining to Honour Killing in India
The Constitution of India
- Article 14 of the Indian Constitution refers to equality before the law, while Article 15 talks about equal rights before the law. When an honor killing occurs, a female member of the family is targeted more often than a male, demonstrating the fact that there is no equality before the law. It is a gender violation to murder a woman.
- The Indian Constitution addresses the right to freedom and the right to life in Articles 19 and 21, respectively. When someone is killed for honor, both of their rights are infringed. It is a person’s right to choose their life partner. Nobody has the authority to take another person’s life or freedom away.
The Indian Penal Code
- Homicide and honor killings are comparable. Sections 299 and 301 of the Indian Penal Code, define culpable homicide as murder because the victim’s death was carried out with the intent to cast the victim’s family’s honor into disrepute.
The Hindu Marriage Act
- Under Section 3 of the Hindu Marriage Act, a citizen becomes a major upon reaching the age of 18. Similar to honour killing, there is a legal transgression. Anyone does not have the authority to kill someone for refusing to get into a marriage that her family planned if the individual does not respect the marriage contract.
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act
- In order to prevent acts of violence against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Indian Parliament passed this Act. Because of the numerous occurrences of honor killings, the Act has been associated with them.
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act
- This Act offers more thorough enforcement of the constitutionally given rights of women who are victims of abuse inside their families, including items related to or incidental to the abuse.
Role of the Judiciary: Honour Killing
There are certain landmark judgments that are often discussed by various RJS Coaching institutes. They are as follows:
- In the case of the State of Maharashtra v Eknath Kisan, it was claimed that honour killings had spread throughout the nation, especially in Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. Young couples who fall in love frequently have to take refuge in protection homes or police lines in order to escape the fury of kangaroo courts.
- In the case of Lata Singh v State of UP, honour killings are nothing more than heinous, cold-blooded murders; there is no honor involved in them. In addition to dismissing all criminal charges against Singh’s husband and her in-laws, the Supreme Court noted that inter-caste and interreligious marriages must be promoted in order to strengthen society’s social fabric.
Conclusion
Various experts in the institutes for RJS Coaching have already gone into great detail about a number of the current legal factors pertaining to the problem of “honour killing.” We have also witnessed the numerous laws and regulations that should be in place to support our judges against this most despicable conduct. Formal governance and proactive policing should be used to actively implement the aforementioned laws in society.
