There are more than 500 policemen protecting a dozen members of the Gehlawat family in Dhrana village of Jhajjar district. They are being shielded against their own neighbours, who have asked them to leave the village, as their son Ravinder has ‘dared’ to marry a girl of his own gotra. Despite the presence of a huge police contingent and regular assurances from the district administration, the family is jittery. Ask them about their discomfort and they give the example of Ved Pal (23) who was lynched a week back in a village in Jind district for allegedly committing the ‘same crime’. Pal had come to take his wife back, armed with a High Court order. The court had also sent a Warrant Officer with him. But even the presence of police could not prevent his death.

These are two of the recent instances of ‘justice’ delivered by the notorious Khap Panchayats in Haryana. A Jat social structure of medieval times, the Khap is a collective panchayat of several villages or castes. Each Khap is governed by a sect of brotherhood, which means that conjugal relations between a set of gotras within that particular Khap are barred. Ravinder had invoked his Khap’s ire by marrying a girl who belonged to Kadiyan gotra. The norms of Kadiyan Khap of the 12 villages (which included Ravinder’s) deemed Kadyian and Gehlawat to be from the same family and for them, Ravinder and his bride were brother and sister.

It is estimated that every year, around 100 legitimate marriages are annulled by the concerned Khap Panchayats.

... contd.