Misuse of anti-dowry law increasing in India

New Delhi, Dec - Vikash Tuteja, who is in his late 30s, had to pay his wife a hefty Rs.1.2 million as the settlement amount in his marriage dispute. It is Section 498 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that has spoilt his life as his in-laws have been using it quite frequently to extract money from him.

Vikash, whose case was settled in a Family Court in Delhi, and many other men and their families have become a victim of this anti-dowry law, which deals with a husband or his family subjecting a woman to cruelty.

The law aims to provide safety and security to women in Indian society where they are often harassed by in-laws for fat sums of dowry at the time of marriage and also subsequently. Punishment can be a maximum of imprisonment of three years and a fine. But there have been many cases of the law being misused.

Mahesh Parekh, a practising lawyer at the Family Court, said: "One out of 12 cases is a vindictive case. It's not as though there is no truth, but, yes, at times it is blown out of proportion to make the husband and the in-laws look criminal and fetch them punishment accordingly."

During the recent Lok Sabha session, it was submitted by the government that more than 11,300 false cases got registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act this year.

The government, which referred to data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), said the cases were declared false on account of mistake of fact or law.

Gurubaksh Singh, secretary of the Save Family Foundation, said: "There are several cases where the husbands were earning a handsome salary and a case of dowry was slapped against them. Women are misguided by the family and sometimes by lawyers to extract money."

Even the legal fraternity has come forward to stop the misuse of dowry laws and proposed the use of lie-detector tests, brain mapping tests and narco-analyses for bringing out the truth in dowry-related cases.

"Even the amendment in the dowry law in the year 1993 has not brought relief to the grieving husbands. Instead, it has created more problems for them," said D.B. Goswami, a prominent criminal lawyer.

"With the help of lie detector tests things will become easier for the complainant as well as the accused. This step will be a great relief for those who are being harassed without any fault of theirs," added Goswami.

K.T.S. Tulsi, a prominent lawyer, said: "There are instances of wives misusing the law only because they want to get away from a joint family and set up homes of their own for various reasons. If a man resists the move because the parents are aged, his wife goes to police with a complaint of dowry harassment."

The Delhi High Court had recently observed that the number of false dowry cases were increasing day by day. In a recent case, the court acquitted a man and five of his family members sentenced to two years imprisonment by a trial court for dowry harassment and an attempt to murder his wife.

Cautioning the police and trial courts against "false statements" by dowry harassment complainants, Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra recently said, "Every failed marriage is not a crime. However, the law (498 A of IPC) is being used to convert failed marriages into a crime and people use it as a tool to extract as much monetary benefit as possible. The FIRs are withdrawn once the payment is received by the complainant," the judge said.

In Bangalore, there are over 300 such cases registered with an NGO, Asha Kirana, which also runs a helpline for harassed husbands.

"Our various laws, including the recent Domestic Violence Act, also support the wife even when she is in the wrong. Even before the case is investigated, the police and the judiciary sympathise with the wife. Precisely for this very reason women who are bent on punishing men use the laws very convincingly," said activist Girish who is also a victim.

Activists are of the opinion that the increase in economic independence, materialism, promiscuity, incompatibility and social acceptance, to name only a few trends, are encouraging women to constantly invoke Section 498 A along with the Dowry Prohibition Act and the recent Domestic Violence Act to get out of a marriage.

"Earlier, once married, a woman had no choice but to stay put with the husband. But with society taking an increasingly lenient view of divorce, second marriages and live-in couples - at least in the urban areas - matrimonial relations have become strained," added Girish.

Several networking groups have urged the government to review Section 498 A and the Domestic Violence Act. To start with, the activists want the sub-clause of taking the aged parents and the wards of the husband into custody to be scrapped immediately so that they are not unnecessarily harassed for no fault of theirs.

National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Girja Vyas said, "The NCW has the mandate to review all existing provisions of the constitution and other laws affecting women and to recommend changes, if any."

Law Commission submits report on Dowry Death

PIB Press Release October 10 - The Chairman of the Law Commission of India, Dr. Justice AR. Lakshmanan today submitted a Report on Dowry Death to the Union Law Minister, Dr. H. R. Bhardwaj.

The question that has been examined by the Law Commission in this Report is whether Section 304-B of Indian Penal Code, should be amended to provide for more stringent punishment of death sentence to curb the menace of dowry death. This section provides for punishment of imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life. Although this section has come into force w.e.f. November 19, 1986 yet the incidents of dowry death have not shown any significant decline. This gave rise to demands for death sentence for the offence of dowry death in order to imbibe necessary deterrence in the law.

The Commission examined Section 304-B IPC in the light of various judicial pronouncements and critically dealt with the substantive as well as procedural aspects of the subjects. The Commission finds that the offence of murder is not the same thing as the offence of dowry death. Though death of bride may be a common element in both the offences, the absence of direct connection between the husband and the death of wife distinguished the offence of dowry death from the offence of murder. Besides, the presumptive character of the offence of dowry death and cardinal principle of proportionality as well as the underlying scheme of the Penal Code go against the proposed prescription of death sentence in case of dowry death. It may be pertinent to point out that where a case of dowry death also falls within the ambit of the offence of murder, awarding death sentence may be legally permissible. The guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court for award of death sentence, especially, the dictum of rarest of rare case, will, however, have to be adhered to in such cases.

The Commission found a lot of misgivings and misapprehension associated with the subject of dowry death. Dowry death is quite often confused with the offence of murder. There may be instances where the two may overlap with each other. This gives rise to demand for parity in the matter of sentence in both these cases. Nevertheless, the two offences are distinct and independent offences. The Commission has proceeded to spell out the finer nuances of the offence of dowry death for their better understanding and appreciation to dispel the ambiguity and confusion shrouding the notion of dowry death vis-à-vis murder. This will help in providing clarity on the subject for its correct understanding and appreciation to the concerned authorities while dealing with the cases of dowry death.

The Commission has, there, not recommended death penalty for dowry death cases. However, the Commission has favored the increasing of the minimum sentence from seven years to ten years in such cases.