Jhajjar (Haryana), Aug 9 (IANS) A “sarv khap panchayat” (grand caste council) in Haryana’s Jhajjar district has reduced the “punishment” of a family, who had been ordered to leave the village after one of its members married in violation of “traditional norms”. Now only the married couple has been debarred from entering the village for life.
The Gehlout family was asked to leave its village Dharana after Ravinder Singh Gehlout, 24, married 20-year-old Shilpa of the Kadiyan clan. A khap panchayat (caste council) accused him of violating a custom of holding no marriages between the Gehlout and Kadiyan clans, which are said to have a “brotherhood” akin to consanguinity.

Gehlout’s family was ordered to leave the village and sell its property.

The “sarv khap”, the grand council, held at the district’s Beri town, 20 km from here, ordered the lifelong ouster of Ravinder Singh Gehlout and his wife from the village, and also told his father to remain out of the village for a three-month period.

A token penalty was also imposed on Ravinder’s uncles.

Raj Kumar, president of Gehlout khap said: “Nearly 54 khaps from Haryana participated in today’s sarva khap panchayat. Both the Gehlout and Kadiyan khaps have unanimously accepted this verdict.”

However, some violent incidents were reported after the meet.

“There were some altercations between the members of Gehlout and Kadiyan khaps. Some people got minor injuries. Besides, the camera of a media person was also broken and one policeman got injured during the melee,” district police chief Saurabh Singh told IANS.