While there are no official figures, an independent study said each year in India around 900 people — mostly young who fall in love or marry against the wishes of their families — are killed for defying their elders.
The Supreme Court on Monday warned that “people planning to perpetrate honor killings should know that the gallows await them.” In India the death penalty is only given in the “rarest of rare” cases and honor killings, like most other murders, have so far been punished only by life imprisonment.
Judges Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said honor killings fall within the “rarest of rare” category and deserve to be a capital crime.
The court was ruling on an appeal by a man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his daughter in 2006 after she had an affair with a cousin. The court rejected his appeal.
