Reviving its campaign for getting the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 amended in Haryana, representatives of various khaps have decided to form a 101-member-joint committee to mount pressure on the State Government for preventing the rising incidents of same village and gotra marriages and honour killings.
Om Prakash Dhankhar, chief of Dhankhar Sabha, said Dada Baljeet Singh Malik, chief of Malik-Gathwala Khap, would lead the committee to decide further course of action to get their long-pending demand met.
"We have also resolved to call on Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in Delhi next week to persuade him for amendment in the marriage act at state level without waiting the decision of Union Government in this regard," said Dhankhar.
The khap leader said a delegation of various khaps had met Hooda around a year ago in connection with the same demand.The CM had, at that time, assured them to raise the demand at central level for quick action, he added.
"This time, we have decided to get the amendment in the marriage act done at state level as the state government has also authority to amend the act as per its existing social customs because such amendments have already been done in Karnataka, Pondicherry, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab States," said Dhankhar.
He maintained that the khaps were in a mood to fight decisive battle for the sake of checking rising incidents of same gotra/village wedding and honour killing.
The khaps would not hesitate to launch a massive campaign against the State Government if it failed to get the marriage act amended on its level, he threatened.
“Amendment in the marriage Act is essential as it does not prohibit the weddings within same gotra and village while our century-old social custom does not allow weddings within same gotra and village as people of same gotra and village belong to same clan and maintain brotherhood as per the social customs hence marriages within gotra and villages are forbidden,” said the khap leader, adding that even medical science also did not support marriages in the same Gotra.