By Justice Markandey Katju–
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
Despite claims of becoming a modern country, the truth is that most of India is still semi-feudal, with caste still deeply entrenched. This is proved by the fact that scheduled castes (Dalits), who are over 200 million of India’s population of 1.4 billion, and are at the lowest stratum in the caste hierarchy in India, are still regarded as inferiors by the so-called “upper castes”.
For a Dalit man to fall in love with a non-Dalit woman is often inviting a death sentence (euphemistically called honor killing) at the hands of woman’s family members or other members of her caste, usually in a brutal manner.
This is exemplified by the facts mentioned in a decision of the Madras High Court in the Yuvraj vs State (June 2023). Like in most Indian states, caste is deeply entrenched in Tamil Nadu society, where Dalits are regarded the lowest in the caste hierarchy, and often treated as inferiors. In this case, a Dalit boy, Gokulraj, was a classmate of Swathi (both pictured above), a non-Dalit girl of the Kongu Vellalar Gounder caste, at KSR Engineering College, Tiruchengode, and both fell in love with each other.
Gounders belong to the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category. That is to say, they are the intermediate castes, below the upper castes but above Dalits. On June 23, 2015, both went to a temple, where Gokulraj was grabbed by members of Swathi’s caste, taken to a railway track and brutally beaten, and then beheaded.
The accused persons put a fake note in Gokulraj’s shirt pocket, to create an impression that it was a suicide by jumping before a train. The trial court convicted most of the accused, and the Madras High Court upheld the life sentences on eight of the accused.
The High Court has mentioned that the evidence in the case and arguments of both sides in great detail, and in my opinion come to a correct conclusion. It has extensively quoted the relevant case law on the points involved. Though it was a case of circumstantial, not direct, evidence, all the evidence conclusively establishes the chain of events, fully linking the accused with the crime.
These pieces of evidence are: the motive (particularly important in cases of circumstantial evidence), the CCTV footage, the initial statement of Swathi (who was believed, though she subsequently turned hostile) under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code or CrPC, the post mortem, the doctor’s evidence, which established that it was a case of homicide and not suicide. the electronic evidence, the last-seen evidence, and the Judges’ spot inspection. The so-called “suicide video” and “suicide note” were rightly disbelieved for the reasons mentioned in the judgment.
One must commend the judges, Justice M.S. Ramesh and Justice N. Anand Venkatesh, who delivered the elaborate and well-considered judgment, for the pains they evidently took in examining the evidence in such detail, and coming to their conclusions.
However, I would like to add that had I been in their place I would have imposed death sentences to the principal accused, as in my opinion ‘honor killing’ comes in the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’ deserving death sentence, as held by my bench in the Supreme Court in Bhagwan Das vs State, 2011. This was a particularly horrendous case, motivated by caste hatred and bigotry. What is particularly distressing is that many members of their caste regard those convicted as heroes.
Indian society has a long way to go before it will be rid of the demon of caste.
