The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Monday, 24 March 2026, passed the Karnataka Freedom of Choice in Marriage and Prevention and Prohibition of Crimes in the Name of Honour and Tradition (Iva Nammava, Iva Nammava) Bill, 2026 a landmark piece of legislation that makes Karnataka one of India’s first states to enact a dedicated law against honour killings and caste-based marital violence.
Tabled by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil, the bill was passed despite resistance from BJP legislators, who questioned the necessity of a new law when existing provisions under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita were already in place. The Congress-led state government maintained that explicit legal backing was essential to protect inter-caste and inter-community couples, who often find themselves without institutional support despite constitutional guarantees. The bill follows a string of honour killings in the state, most notably the brutal murder of 20-year-old pregnant woman Manya Patil in Hubballi in December 2025.
A Law Born Out of Tragedy and a 12th-Century Verse
The bill’s name, Iva Nammava, Iva Nammava, meaning “He is ours, He is ours”, is drawn from a 12th-century philosophical verse by Basavanna, the poet and founder of the Lingayat tradition, who championed the principles of social equality. The choice of name is deliberate: it grounds a modern legal instrument in one of Karnataka’s most cherished intellectual and spiritual traditions.
The bill was introduced in the wake of the killing of Manya Patil, a Lingayat woman, who had married Vivekananda, a Dalit man. The couple had shifted to Haveri after police brokered a compromise between their families. They returned to their village on 8 December 2025, believing the relationship would be accepted since Manya was pregnant. Despite renewed police intervention, Manya’s father and relatives allegedly barged into her home and killed her.
Tabling the bill in the Assembly, Minister Patil made the government’s intent clear: “This is a Bill aimed at bringing social change and, in a way, enabling a social revolution,” adding that values of equality had long existed in Indian philosophical traditions but had failed to enter everyday life. “We have accepted these as social values, but they have not truly entered our lives, they have remained only as subjects of speeches,” he said, underlining the need for legal enforcement.
What the Law Actually Does
The bill declares that any two persons who are eligible to marry have the right to do so without hindrance from anyone, including parents and family members. It states that no person shall commit any act in the name of caste, culture, custom, tradition, or so-called “honour” against any person on the ground that they have transgressed cultural or social norms. The bill covers more than just murder, defining “honour crimes” to include physical harm, forced marriage or divorce, social boycotts, and the performance of thithi – death rituals – for living couples.
Offences are categorised as cognisable and non-bailable, with harsh penalties including life imprisonment for certain violent acts. Those causing grievous hurt to a couple in the name of honour face a minimum of three years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to three lakh rupees, while those causing simple hurt face a minimum of two years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of up to two lakh rupees.
The law also directs the state government to identify districts where honour killings have occurred in the past five years and take measures to sensitise the public as well as government officials. It envisages a special cell in every district to prevent crimes carried out in the name of tradition, dedicated helplines and an Eva Nammava Vedike, a committee comprising a retired judge, police officer, revenue officer, sub-registrar and others, to facilitate the solemnisation of marriages and provide counselling.
BJP MLA S. Suresh Kumar raised concerns about provisions relating to couples declaring their intent to live together, questioning whether the bill supported live-in relationships. Minister Patil clarified: “This enactment will not support the concept of living together. Let me make it clear. It is intended to strengthen the institution of marriage.”
A Pattern of Violence That Demanded a Response
In a 2024 report titled In the Name of Honour, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties–Karnataka documented 13 honour-related attacks between January 2022 and December 2023, resulting in the deaths of 12 individuals. Home Minister G. Parameshwara had stated in the Legislative Council on 12 March that there had been 15 honour killings in the state over the past five years.
The bill’s strong provisions against caste panchayats, community assemblies, and social boycotts directly take aim at khap-style gatherings of five or more people that meet to pass resolutions or issue diktats against inter-caste marriages, making such assemblies punishable offences.
The bill also imposes time-bound obligations on police, including six-hour response deadlines, continuous protection plans and victim-centred procedures, a recognition that the state has historically failed to enforce human rights norms in caste-linked crimes, with police often treating such incidents as “family disputes” and delaying or refusing to register FIRs.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
No tradition, no family pride, and no community assembly holds more weight than a person’s fundamental right to choose whom they love and marry. Karnataka’s Iva Nammava bill is not merely a piece of legislation, it is a moral statement that the state will no longer look away when families and caste groups claim the right to punish, brutalise or kill.
The fact that it took the murder of a young pregnant woman to finally push this bill across the finish line is itself a damning indictment of how long society has tolerated this violence in silence. That the bill draws its very name from Basavanna, a 12th-century voice for equality, reminds us that the struggle against caste-based oppression is not new; only the urgency has grown sharper. We urge every state in India to take note, and we urge Karnataka to ensure that this law is implemented with the same urgency and empathy with which it was conceived, because a law without enforcement is just another speech.
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The Karnataka Assembly on Monday passed the Eva Nammava Eva Nammava Bill, 2026 — The Karnataka Freedom of Choice in Marriage and Prevention and Prohibition of Crimes.https://t.co/Frj92ORpu8
— TNIE Karnataka (@XpressBengaluru) March 24, 2026
