Death penalty for 10 in honor killing case

A local Indian court sentenced 10 people to death for their involvement in the so-called "honor killing" of a couple who eloped, as well as the groom's brother, in 2008, reports the Hindustan Times.

The sentences are the second bunch, following a Supreme Court advisory in May that the death penalty should be applied in honor killing cases.

According to Indian law, the death penalty is not mandatory for any specific crime. Rather, it is specifically limited to the "rarest of the rare" instances in which the crime was marked by extreme callousness toward human life or extreme brutality.

Honor killings are without question a social evil that needs to be eradicated, but this seems to me another instance in which the Court has overstepped its bounds — once again dabbling in the amendment of legislation rather than its interpretation.