Editing Gotra (section)

===Legal situation===
While the gotras are almost universally used for excluding marriages that would be traditionally [[incest]]uous, they are not legally recognized as such, although those within "degrees of prohibited relationship" or who are  "sapinda" are not permitted to marry.<ref>[http://unstats.un.org/unsd/vitalstatkb/Attachment546.aspx The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022170018/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/vitalstatkb/Attachment546.aspx |date=22 October 2015 }}.</ref> [[Khap]] panchayats in Haryana have campaigned to legally ban marriages within the same gotra. A convener of the Kadyan Khap, Naresh Kadyan, petitioned the courts to seek an amendment to the [[Hindu Marriage Act]] to legally prohibit such marriages. However, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn after being vacated, with the Delhi High Court warning that the Khap would face heavy penalty costs for wasting the time of the court.<ref>[http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article472462.ece HC throws out a plea to forbid same gotra marriages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121205155452/http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article472462.ece |date=5 December 2012 }}, ''The Hindu'', June 2010.</ref>

In the 1945 case of ''Madhavrao vs Raghavendrarao'', which involved a [[Deshastha Brahmin]] couple, the definition of gotra as descending from eight sages and then branching out to several families was thrown out by the [[Bombay High Court]]. The court called the idea of [[Brahmin gotra|Brahmin]] families descending from an unbroken line of common ancestors as indicated by the names of their respective gotras "impossible to accept." The court consulted relevant Hindu texts and stressed the need for Hindu society and law to keep up with the times, emphasizing that notions of good social behavior and the general ideology of Hindu society had changed. The court also said that the material in the Hindu texts is so vast and full of contradictions that it is a near-impossible task to reduce it to order and coherence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-paradox-of-the-21st-century/article432445.ece|title=The paradox of the 21st century|last=Anand|first=Pinky|authorlink=Pinky Anand|work=The Hindu|date=28 July 2011|access-date=5 May 2014|archive-date=5 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505182411/http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-paradox-of-the-21st-century/article432445.ece|url-status=live}}</ref>