People are killed each year for marrying outside caste: CJI Chandrachud
In his speech, the CJI also referred to several morality-related cases, such as the 'breast tax,' Section 377, the ban on bar dances in Mumbai, and the legalisation of adultery.
While delivering a lecture on "Law and Morality" organised in memory of eminent jurist late Advocate Ashok Desai, the Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud remarked that many people are killed each year in India just because they marry outside their caste or against their family's wishes.
This statement came to be made by Justice Chandrachud while referring to an incident of honor killing dating back to 1991, which occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
The CJI further observed that dominant groups around the world decide the code of conduct and morality, overpowering the weaker groups.
Further questioning as to "who decides the code of conduct or morality?" the CJI said that the vulnerable groups are placed at the bottom of the social structure, and their consent even if attained, is a myth.
Vulnerable sections of society are unable to generate a counter culture because of humiliation and separation at the hands of the oppressor groups, the CJI added while stating that the counter culture, if any, that the vulnerable groups develop, is overpowered by the government groups to further alienate them.
Referring to the decriminalisation of section 377 of the IPC, the CJI observed that it was based on "public morality" which approved heteronormativity and castigated homosexuality.
"We rectified the injustice. Section 377 was based on morality of a gone era. Constitutional morality focuses on rights of individuals and protects it from popular morality notions of the society," he said.