Indian weddings may be globally known as ‘big fat weddings’, but it didn’t find much favour with a city court on Tuesday. The court frowned on the money pumped into such lavish affairs and asked if being known for ‘big fat weddings’ should be taken as a compliment.

“India has the largest number of hungry people in the world. Starvation is also ‘Killer No.1’ in India.

It’s really surprising as to why our thinkers and policymakers don’t ponder over it. Why can’t we have a ‘Guest Control Order’? Why can’t we have ‘One-dish Rule’ for such gatherings? At least, this small thing we need to emulate from our neighbouring country situated in the West. If the colossal food wastage and money pumped in for pure show-off was not enough, we have another menace,” Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain said.

He awarded a 25-month jail term to 35-year-old Jasbir Chauhan held guilty of firing in the air at his friend’s wedding, leading to the death of the groom’s uncle. Chauhan was guilty under Section 304 (Part II) of the IPC (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

“Firing guns and pistols during a marriage procession has become a sort of fashion. If this is happening in the capital city, it will be certainly taking place in a larger proportion in rural or remote areas. This is proving to be a killer of innocent fellow-baraatis and even onlookers. It’s high time the government tightens the procedure for grant of arms licences and also devolves a robust mechanism to ensure that these licences are not misused,” the court observed.

In the present case, according to the prosecution, on January 2012, during the marriage procession of his friend, Jasbir had fired in celebration and the bullet hit the groom’s uncle Ranbir, who died before reaching hospital.

The judge said, “I have seen the video footage very painstakingly and minutely. A very close scrutiny of the video footage would reveal that the accused had, in fact, fired two shots. The first shot was at shoulder-level. The sound of firing can be heard in the background and the expression of the accused also says it all… he was found closing his eyes which is nothing but a normal human reaction when anyone pulls the trigger. Second shot is in the air.”

“Some baraatis, to show off and unnecessarily demonstrate their jubilation, take pride in firing in air from their licensed firearms which they feel is a prized possession. Little do they realise that such a thing is neither desirable nor legal and can also kill someone. This is what happened in the case in hand,” the court said while imposing a fine of Rs 3 lakh on the convict, directing that the same be paid to the victim’s wife.

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