The Haryana government has started taking action against the notorious khap panchayats (Jat community councils) for annulling marriages within the same gotra (lineage) and harassing the bride and groom and their families.
On Monday, the government suspended a sarpanch (headman) and another panchayat official in Samaspur village, Bhiwani, for annulling a couple’s marriage. Surender, the sarpanch, and Ramesh, the other official, were charged with turning a marriage into a matter of dispute and inciting people, thus violating the directions of Punjab and Haryana high court.
The khap is a collective panchayat of several villages or castes. Each one is governed by a sect of brotherhood, which means that conjugal relations between a set of gotras within that particular khap are barred. In the past three years, there were reports of four young men and women committing suicide because they could not bear the ostracism. In a dozen other incidents, couples were made to flee their villages.
Surender and Ramesh have been ordered not to attend any meeting of Samaspur panchayat, Bhiwani deputy commissioner Vikas Gupta said. The duo has also been asked to submit panchayat funds and property records to government officials.
According to Gupta, Bhiwani Police submitted a report on March 10 that Bhagwan from Samaspur married Anita from Makrani on January 11 at the Arya Samaj Mandir in Jaipur. However, Surender and Ramesh annulled the marriage and provoked people against the bride and the groom who belonged to the same gotra.
They also organised a panchayat meeting and told the groom’s family to leave the village. The decision was in violation of the directions of Punjab and Haryana high court and could have led to a serious law and order problem, Gupta said.
To prevent any more incidents, the government has launched an awareness campaign in Rohtak. The district administration has urged representatives of khap panchayats not to make decisions which could trample on the rights of any particular community, section of society or individual. Khaps were alsowarned that the administration will not hesitate to take legal action against those who take inhuman decisions.
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