Hang ‘honour-killers’, says former SC judge Markandey Katju

Justice Katju referred to the most recent instance that happened in Madurai on Thursday, Gandhi Jayanti, when a young girl, belonging a backward community, was allegedly burnt alive by her parents in Madurai for marrying a Dalit lover.

“I have said, with Justice Gyansudha Misra, in a judgment (Bhagwan Das Vs State of Delhi, 2011) that ‘honour-killing must have only one punishment, death. We must strike terror in the hearts of these barbaric, feudal minded killers by hanging them. That alone will send a message that such horrendous acts are simply unacceptable in the modern age”, said Justice Katju.

He said it was tragic that Indians regarded a section of their own people, the Dalits, as inferiors even after more than 200 years since those memorable words in the American Declaration of Independence — ‘We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal’.

“When I said that we are still largely a very backward country, full of casteism and communalism, I was furiously attacked by some ‘ patriots ‘. But do such horrid deeds not show the truth of my statement? How many of us are willing to accept their daughter marrying a Dalit boy, even if he has a good character and is financially well off ?” wondered Justice Katju, while recalling that in another case, Lata Singh vs State of U.P., he had said that if the parents disapproved of their daughter marrying someone, the maximum they could do was to break off social relations with her. They have no right to harm her.

“But who listens to me ? I have been accused of being a maverick, a publicity seeker, a person with a foot in the mouth disease, a crazy person, a person with a hidden agenda, and even (by one Chief Minister) a dog, when all I have been trying to do all along was to spread rationalism and scientific thinking to take my country forward”, Justice Katju

said.