Panchayat Dishes out Wife Swapping as a Punishment

In a village in India, the governing body is the Panchayat who are elected reps from the village. The president of the Panchayat is called the Sarpanch. The Panchayat is the adminstrative authority in a village and hears petty offences and also awards punishment. In a village in rural Utter Pradesh, the North Indian state the Panchayat has passed a unique punishment. One of the married men in the village eloped with the wife of another married man who was also a resident of the village.

The aggrieved man brought his case to the Panchayat, that his wife had been seduced by another man and she had eloped with him. The Panchayat after due deliberation gave a bizarre verdict. It authorised the man who had filed the complaint to keep the wife of the man who had seduced his wife. The Panchayat authorised the man to immediately take the wife of the man, as his own wife and have conjugal relations with her as well as have children. In other words it authorised wife swapping. The Panchayat also added a rider that the woman must concieve with child. A grace period of 90 days was given