Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 18: Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said on Saturday that hundreds of young people in India lose their lives to honour killings just because they fall in love with someone, marry outside of their caste, or go against the wishes of their families.
According to the CJI, morality is a subjective idea that differs from person to person.
He quoted a piece that described how a 15-year-old girl’s parents murdered her in Uttar Pradesh in 1991.
“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,” he said.
According to the CJI, dominant groups frequently set moral standards.
He continued by saying that because of oppression, members of weaker and marginalised groups are compelled to bow to dominant groups and are unable to create a counterculture.
“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,“ he remarked.
He also said that the members belonging to the marginalized communities have little choice but to submit to the dominant culture for their own survival.
“Vulnerable sections of society are unable to generate a counter culture because of humiliation and separation at the hands of the oppressor groups. The counter culture, if any, that the vulnerable groups develop, is overpowered by the government groups to further alienate them,” he said while referring to the ‘negotiation of morality due to power difference.’
The CJI was delivering the Ashok Desai Memorial Lecture on Law and Morality organised by the Bombay Bar Association in Mumbai. He reaffirmed throughout his speech that judges do not distinguish between various cases and that every matter that is brought before a High Court or the Supreme Court is significant for the court.
People trust the courts to uphold their right to privacy, the CJI emphasised.
