Chandigarh: Falling in love can come at a price for couples in a village in Punjab's Ludhiana district. They face a social boycott if they get married.

A resolution signed by gram panchayat members of Chankoian Khurd village in Ludhiana's Doraha block, the village gurdwara committee and local clubs has ruled against love marriages.

"If any boy or girl gets married on their own, the village will socially boycott them. If anyone from the village stays in touch with such couples or helps them in any way, they will also be boycotted," the resolution says.

Village shopkeepers have been warned not to entertain such couples. The couples will also be barred from using the village common ground and services offered by the panchayat.

The decisions, taken at a meeting held in the village on April 29, came after a recent inter-caste love marriage that had enraged some villagers.

Hakam Singh, the officiating panch of Chankoian Khurd, defended the resolution. "This is not the decision of the panchayat but the entire village," he said. "We have not done anything wrong."

A Ludhiana police officer said the government "cannot allow the boycott" of any couple on any ground. "If any couple faces ostracism and complains to us, we will take action."

The district development panchayat officer, Harkanwaljit Singh, said he was not aware of any such resolution.

Panchayats and caste-linked khap panchayats in Haryana, Rajasthan and parts of Uttar Pradesh have been known to issue threats against couples, which have led to honour killings in some cases.

In March this year the Supreme Court had ruled against such khaps interfering in inter-caste and inter-religious marriages and came up with directives to prevent honour killings.

But some village elders don't seem to have mended their ways. Last month, a village sarpanch in Haryana banned girls from wearing jeans and using cellphones.

Last year, a Gurdaspur panchayat had expelled two families and banned them from re-entering the village after the sons married two girls from the same village.

The villagers had also decided to hand over to police any resident who married a girl from the same village.

Singh, the officiating panch of Chankoian Khurd, said two love marriages involving members of the same family had prompted the April 29 resolution. "The girl went against her family's wishes and married a boy from another caste. This girl's brother too had married against his family's wishes. We cannot allow such people in the village and so have decided to punish them socially as an example for other youngsters."

The marriages, he added, had earned the village a bad name.