SC issues notice on a petition challenging a Rajasthan HC Order refusing monitored inquiry into a possible case of ‘honour’ killing

The Bench, comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia, issued notice on a petition challenging an Order of the Rajasthan High Court. The Order of the high court had refused to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or court-monitored investigation into the alleged murder of a girl by her family members on account of her having an affair with a boy belonging to a sub-caste of a caste to which the girl belonged. This, after the deceased had, on a recorded video message, expressed apprehension that her family members might kill her.

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On Monday, a Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia issued notice on a petition challenging an Order of the Rajasthan High Court. The Order of the high court had refused to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or court-monitored investigation into the alleged murder of a girl by her family members on account of her having an affair with a boy belonging to a sub-caste of a caste to which the girl belonged.

The Bench heard advocate Utkarsh Singh, for the petitioner, Uma Paliwal. Paliwal is co-coordinator of 'Girls Collective' of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Vishakha, that works on right-based intervention in the area of education, health, and combating violence against women and girls. The deceased used to work with the NGO.

On May 10 last year, the deceased girl, in a video message, expressed apprehension that her family members might kill her. On the very next day, around 9 a.m., she was found dead at her home and was hurriedly cremated at around 11 a.m. without any postmortem or intimation to the police. It was only on May 27, 2022 that a first information report (FIR) was registered against six persons including the father, mother, brother, sister-in-law and uncle of the deceased, under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), after the intervention of the director general of police (DGP) of Rajasthan.

The Rajasthan police filed a chargesheet on June 23 but only against the mother, that too for the offence under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC. It was against this dropping of the murder charges as well as the dropping of the name of other accused persons that the petitioner approached the high court, seeking court-monitored re-investigation or alternately an investigation by the CBI. 

The investigation officer, in her affidavit in the high court, stated that the audio and video notes made by the victim were hyperbole and thus could not be treated as a dying declaration. On April 19, 2023, the high court dismissed the petition filed by the petitioner observing that no interference was called for.