Govt to set up GoM on new law for honour killings

NEW DELHI: Government on Thursday said that a Group of Minsters will be set up to deal with the new law on honour killings.

"Group of Ministers will be set up to consider amendments to the law to deal with honour killings. Views will also be sought from states to proposed amendments to IPC and CrPC," says I&B minister Ambika Soni.

"Honour killings is a sensitive issue and must be discussed properly," said Soni.

Soni said that the Bill on honour killings will be brought in the monsoon session of Parliament.

Under the present legal regime, anyone participating in a khap panchayat could at best be roped in for being a party to the conspiracy that generally attracts a maximum punishment ranging from five years to life term.

The other four categories of culpable homicide amounting to murder already defined under Section 300 are:

* if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death

* secondly, if it is done with the intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused

* thirdly, if it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death

* fourthly, if the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.

The spate of honour killings in Delhi and Haryana had ushered in the `immediacy' along with 'necessity' for laws to be tuned to meet the kangaroo courts.