TILL a decade back "khap panchayats", the caste-based village councils with their kangaroo courts, mainly functioning in Haryana were unknown and "honour killings" were unheard of but now they have emerged as a major threat to the body politick and law of land.

If the reports are to be relied on an average more than five hundred young people are being killed every year owing to ‘honour killings’ linked to forced marriages. A paper presented at the International Child Abduction, Relocation and Forced Marriages Conference organised by the London Metropolitan University, the Chandigarh-based legal experts Anil Malhotra and Ranjit Malhotra underlined: "Forced marriages and honour killings are often intertwined. Marriage can be forced to save honour, and women can be murdered for rejecting a forced marriage and marrying a partner of their own choice who is not acceptable for the family of the girl." The "khap panchayats" are not legal entities like the three-tier panchayat but the element of caste assertion has made them acquire strength. They are an informal gathering of village elders of Jat community. It is an irony that the compulsions of caste politics have forced the political institution and the governments of Harayana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to accord it social sanctity. Their turning a blind eye to the regressive diktats has in fact emboldened these panchayats even to issue orders for killing the defiant couples for saving the honour of the caste. A closer look at the development would make it clear that this is an act of assertion of supremacy of the caste identity. The Union government must act before it acquires a major dimension and emerges as social menace. It should ask the state governments to initiate stringent actions against the khap leaders and introduce legislation to deal firmly with the heinous crime.