Honour killings: HC hopes govt will address issue at earliest

The Madras High Court today hoped that a report of the Law Commission on enacting a stand-alone legislation to check honour killings is addressed at the earliest by the Union government with states concerned.
The court made the observation while closing a PIL seeking a direction to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and Members of Legislative Assembly, Government of Tamil Nadu to bring in a new legislation against honour killings.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sundar, had earlier given certain directions to the state and the Centre on the matter when the PIL filed by Varaaki had come up earlier.

When the matter came up today, the state government pleader K Subramanian sought two weeks' time with regard to the direction issued by the bench for setting up investigative units to deal with crimes against women in select police districts with regard to the amended SC/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
It was informed by the state government that a Circular of Memorandum dated November 4 was already sent to all police stations with regard to strong measures to be taken to prevent honour killings.
Recording all the submissions, the Bench hoped that the central government would look into the issue of the stand-alone legislation on honour killings at the earliest and closed the PIL.