Two Indian sisters that are part of the Dalit caste – a group that has traditionally been known as "untouchable" in Hindi society -- have been told they will be gang raped as a punishment for crimes committed by their brother.

Meenakshi Kumari, aged 23, and her younger sister, aged 15, have pleaded with the Supreme Court for protection.

After their brother Ravi eloped with a woman belonging to the higher Jat caste, members of their village in the Baghpat district pledged to avenge his transgression by punishing his sisters. Aside from the rape, the women will be paraded naked with blackened faces.

The ruling, made by an all-male panel, is not legally valid, but will nevertheless be upheld, as India has yet to fully eliminate a traditional system of village judgment. Shelby Quast, a policy director at gender advocacy group Equality Now, spoke of the power these local Indian courts still have, saying, “When informal legal systems exist alongside the formal legal system, women and girls often experience enormous abuse.”

“The Supreme Court must uphold the rule of law and condemn Uttar Pradesh for allowing an informal legal council to sentence innocent girls to rape as a form of punishment,” adds Quast as reported by the Daily Beast.

As reported in the Independent, Meenakshi Kumari is petitioning for protection from India's highest court for herself, her sister and her family, as their home has been ransacked.

The siblings are not the only ones facing danger because of caste transgressions. According to Amnesty International, the woman that Ravi married and ran off with is in danger as well.

The sisters say they cannot return to their homes in the Baghpat district.

As noted by Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association, the use of rape as a punishment has a long history in India. Speaking to NPR, Krishnan said the tradition is linked to the idea of women as property. "If you want to hurt the husband or hurt the father, or hurt the community, then you rape the woman to say, 'All right, I'm soiling your goods,'" she said.