A 20-year-old woman in West Bengal was gang-raped by 13 men on the orders of a village court as punishment for having a relationship with a man from a different community. It is the latest instance of the sickening kind of ‘justice’ meted out by illegal courts or khap Panchayats, as they are known in certain places.

Even though the 13 men who raped her have been nabbed, that is small solace. It is time to look at the bigger picture. While the rapists must pay — including the village headman who ordered this crime, giving it ‘legal’ sanction so to speak — the government needs to move on these regressive kangaroo courts, which terrorise people with their sweeping powers.