CJI Chandrachud criticise dishonour killing and dominant groups dictating code of conduct

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud on Saturday said hundreds of young Indians die due to dishonour killings because they love or marry someone outside their caste and against their family's wishes. He added that dominant groups decide the code of conduct and morality which overpowers the weaker groups.

Citing the murder of a 15-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh in 1991, DY Chandrachud said her parents killed her. The villages accepted the crime and justified it for them due to the code of conduct in the society. "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?," asked the CJI.

Delivering a speech on "Law and Morality," he spoke of several cases linked to the issue of morality including breast tax, criminalisation of homosexuality, striking down adultery, and ban on dance bars in Mumbai, reported Bar and Bench.

About the decriminalisation of homosexuality, he said we rectified the injustice because section 477 was based on the morality of a gone era. "Constitutional morality focuses on the rights of individuals and protects it from popular morality notions of the society."

The CJI raised the question: "Is it necessary that what is moral for me has to be moral for you?" He observed that members of weaker and marginalised communities have little choice but to submit to the dominant culture in order to survive. Vulnerable sections are unable to generate a counterculture due to humiliation and separation at the hands of oppressors.

He added that government groups overpower vulnerable groups and alienate them if they develop a counterculture. "The vulnerable groups are placed at the bottom of the social structure. Their consent, even if attained, is a myth."

"The values of a progressive constitution serve as a guiding force for us. They convey that our personal and professional lives aren't divorced from the Constitution. The Indian Constitution was designed not for people as they were, but how they ought to be. It is the flag bearer of our fundamental rights. It guides us in our daily life," he further said.