CJI Chandrachud on honour killings: ‘Hundreds of young people in India die because…’

CJI DY Chandrachud was speaking at the Ashok Desai Memorial Lecture on Law and Morality organised by the Bombay Bar Association in Mumbai on Saturday.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said morality is a fluid concept which varies from person to person, adding that hundreds of young people die in the country due to honour killings merely because they love someone or marry outside their caste or against their family's wishes, reported Bar and Bench.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.(File)

The CJI was speaking at the Ashok Desai Memorial Lecture on Law and Morality organised by the Bombay Bar Association in Mumbai on Saturday.

Referring to a news report on how a 15-year-old girl was killed by her parents in Uttar Pradesh in 1991, CJI Chandrachud said, "The article stated that villagers accepted the crime. Their actions were acceptable and justified (for them) because they complied with the code of conduct of that society in which they lived. However, is this the code of conduct that would have been put forward by rational people? If this is not a code of conduct that would have been put forward by rational people? Many people are killed each year for falling in love, or marrying outside their caste or against their family's wishes."

According to the CJI, morality is often dictated by dominant groups.

"Who decides the code of conduct or morality? The dominant groups, which overpower the weaker ones. The vulnerable groups are placed at the bottom of the social structure, that their consent even if attained, is a myth," the legal website quoted CJI Chandrachud as saying.

The members belonging to the marginalised communities have little choice but to submit to the dominant culture for their own survival, he said.

During his speech, the CJI also the "fearless sense of independence of courts" saved democracy during the Emergency in 1975, reported news agency PTI.

Chandrachud, who assumed the office of the Chief Justice of India in November, was felicitated by the Bombay High Court. At the ceremony, he spoke at length about several judges of the past and his experience while working with them. "It was judges like Rane who kept the torch of liberty burning which had become dim in those years of Emergency in 1975. It was the fearless sense of independence of our courts which saved Indian democracy in 1975," the CJI said.