SISANA, India — There are two laws in this dusty village less than 50 miles from India’s capital: the law of the land and the law of the village. And for local residents like Takdir Dahiya, the law of the village councils known as khap panchayats is the only one that matters.

“We do not know what the law is,” he said on a recent boiling afternoon. “We only know what is decided by the khap panchayat. Here it is not the Supreme Court that decides. It is the khap panchayat that decides.”

For generations, these unelected councils of male elders have dominated life in many villages, mostly across northern India, exerting social control through edicts that govern everything from marriage to property disputes. But the councils are coming under growing national scrutiny as their extrajudicial rulings — especially those blamed for the spread of so-called honor killings — are challenging the concept of the national rule of law.

In recent months, an assertive Supreme Court has issued opinions condemning the councils as illegal bodies, and the controversy is expected to spill into this summer’s “monsoon” session of Parliament. Legal advocates are pushing for a comprehensive law establishing criminal penalties to deter the khaps from issuing their edicts.