Katta Panchayat

Mr. A was engaged to be married to Ms. B by the family elders. Ms. B had in the past suffered from Tuberculosis and was completely cured. This was made clear to the family of  A who accepted it. As marriage date approached, A developed cold feet, and the marriage was called off. The family of B who had    incurred some financial loss towards marriage expenses in addition to loss of face approached the Katta Panchayat, who ruled that family of A pay a compensation of Rs. 200,000 to the family of B and family of B donate Rs, 50,000 out of that to the village temple. Thus the matter was settled.

I listened to this story involving some distant relatives with amazement during a family get together. I was not aware of existance of Khap panchayat type structures in TN. Then later, I was watching Justice Verma place the report in Vigyan Bhawan live. He mentioned


To augment the police force, there is need to
develop community policing by involving the
local population. Willing volunteers should be
properly and intensively trained before being
able to police the community. This would also
motivate them to perform their duty as
citizens. Respectable persons in each locality
could also be appointed Special Executive
Magistrates under Section 21, Cr.P.C. and
invested power to deal with the traffic offences
and other minor offences including eve-teasing.
In addition, to assisting the maintenance of law
and order in the locality, their presence would
inspire greater confidence of safety in their
locality.
In this regard, the Government may like to also
consider maximizing the use of volunteer
forces which are already constituted after
ensuring proper training of the kind needed to
tackle the offences which are the subject of this
report. The Committee does not have the
capacity to study the training, number or
jurisdiction of these forces such as the Home
guards in detail and make recommendations
but this is something which is left to the
Government to consider as an option after
further thought and research.
14. The protection of women from harassment and
threats of a sexual nature as well as all other sexual
offences is dependent on the quality of policing in
our country. The people trust the police for
prevention and investigation of sexual offences. It
is necessary to make systemic changes as
suggested. This would inculcate Constitutional
values in the police force and the moral vision
required for the performance of its statutory duties
in a Republican democracy; where the political
sovereignty ultimately vests in the people.