CASTE BASED HONOUR KILLINGS IN TAMILNADU. A LEGAL ANALYSIS UNDER THE BNSS AND THE SC/ST (PREVENTION OF ATTROCITIES) ACT

Caste-based honour killings represent one of the most deeply entrenched violations of constitutional rights in contemporary India. In Tamil Nadu, inter-caste relationships particularly between Dalits and members of dominant OBC communities such as Gounders, Thevars, and Vanniyars continue to trigger organised lethal violence, orchestrated by families and legitimised by caste panchayats operating entirely outside any legal framework. Despite constitutional guarantees under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21, and despite the existence of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, the gap between the law on paper and justice in practice remains wide and well documented. This dissertation examines that gap. It analyses the adequacy of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (BNSS), the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS), and the SC/ST Act in preventing and prosecuting caste-based honour killings in Tamil Nadu. Drawing on NCRB data, NGO documentation, landmark Supreme Court and Madras High Court decisions, and a comparative legal study of Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Jordan, the study argues that the existing legal framework is structurally inadequate not because the law is entirely silent, but because it lacks a
dedicated legislative architecture for honour killing as a distinct criminal category. The principal findings are that police in Tamil Nadu routinely fail to invoke the SC/ST Act, stripping Dalit victims of enhanced legal protections; that conviction rates in SC/ST Act cases hover between
twenty-two and thirty-five percent due to witness intimidation, hostile witnesses, and inadequate prosecution; that the BNSS and BNS, despite meaningful procedural improvements, contain no provision specifically addressing honour killing; and that the Law Commission's 2012 recommendation for a dedicated statute has remained unimplemented for over a decade.