Integrate ‘khaps’ into judicial system, say experts

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, February 20

Legal experts and social activists on Monday called for integrating the age-old ‘khap panchayat’ system into the formal justice dispensation mechanism to provide quick and effective justice to litigants and resolve the problem of increasing number of court cases estimated at over 30 million.

The ‘khap’ system was being followed effectively in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and several other developed countries in modified forms by involving the local population in the justice delivery system, the experts said.

It was unfortunate that the system was sought to be discredited in India through a sustained campaign by vested interests despite the fact that it had been acknowledged as an effective mechanism across the world, they said at a seminar on the merits and demerits of the present judicial system and the existential realities.

The seminar was organised at the Indian Law Institute here by Supreme Court advocate Balram S Malik, Convener of Peoples Lawyers Forum. Among those who spoke at the function were Santosh Dahiya, president of Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat, Ibrahim Khan from Mewat, Nuh, Jagdish Kumar Gehlawat and ‘khap’ leaders from the region.

The alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as negotiations, arbitration, mediation and conciliation were nothing but modified forms of the ‘khap’ system, they averred.

There was a consensus at the seminar to take up the issue with the petitions committee of Parliament for securing legal and judicial status to such panchayats.

Litigants involved in family dispute cases were not finding the atmosphere congenial even in family courts which were supposed to function in an informal way.

The way such disputes were being handled in family courts was no different from the proceedings of regular courts, they opined.

Village panchayats were resolving all sorts of problems ranging from matrimonial disputes to land grabs in a matter of days, while the judiciary took years and decades for delivering judgments. But for the ‘khaps,’ the number of pending cases would have been much more, they said.

A survey showed that even winners of judicial battles were not happy with judgments while the decisions of ‘khap’ panchayats were acceptable to both sides.