Dowry Laws: loopholes and possibilities of misuse

BY 

Author: Dipika Mahale, ILS Law College, Pune

Dowry is the basic cause of the crime against women. Dowry is an amount of property or money brought by a bride to husband for their marriage. The dowry is easy money in the hands of the people who taking or demanding dowry.

Dowry laws in India

The Indian Criminal laws were comprehensively amended to include dowry as a punishable offence under section 304-B was added to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which made dowry death a specific offence punishable with a minimum sentence of imprisonment for 7 years and a maximum imprisonment for life. The IPC also punishes bride burning, cruelty and torture to brides. Section 498-A is a strong prohibition in this code. Section 198-A of Criminal Procedure Code fixes the procedure for such provisions. The Indian evidence Act also provides that the accused has to take the burden of proof.

In addition to this the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 was passed. Even though now days many dowry harassment cases has been reported. This is the reason why dowry death, dowry torture and dowry harassment has not been eradicated. The provision of the Act says that any person who gives or take or abets the giving or taking dowry shall be punished with imprisonment or fine or both.

Besides the central Dowry Act, the state govt. has enacted their own provisions for direct and indirect effort to prohibit dowry.

When a case involves a suicide by a woman within 7 years of marriage the court will presume that the accused is guilty of abatement of suicide and magistrate can hold an enquiry on his own apart from the police enquiry.

Misuse of Dowry Laws

From all the above provisions relating to the prohibition of dowry harassment the Dowry Prohibition Act, is very important. This Act specifically enacted with purpose to eradicate the evil of dowry. But from observation it is seems that the women are increasingly using the anti-dowry law to harass in-laws. It has been allegations that in many cases, husband and their relatives are often charged with false dowry harassment cases by their wives or her family members when some marital problems arise. The facts is that the men are suffering from the “misuse” of section 498-A.

In year 2011- 10,193 false cases were registered, while in year 2012- 10,235 and in 2013 the number increased to 10,964. I 2015- 10,000 false cases filed. The rate of charge sheeting cases under section 498-A is as high as 93.6% while the conviction rate is only 15% which is lowest across all heads.

As many as 3, 72,706 cases are pending trial nearly 3, 17,000 are likely to result in acquittal; this is the data analysis of the NCRB. According to National Crime Record Bureau statics, nearly 2, 00,000 people including 47,951 women were arrested in regard to dowry offences in 2012, but only 15% of the accused were convicted.

It is the opinion of the court that, it is the misuse of the sec.498-A as a tool to harass husband and his relatives.  Even if complaint is false the accused are presumed guilty until they prove their innocence in the court.

In one case SC directed the state govt. to instruct police not to automatically arrest when a case under sec. 498-A of IPC is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameter of section 41 of Criminal Procedure Code. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 was enacted with the intention of protecting wives from marital violence, abuse and implementation of this Act has been failed.

Loopholes of the Act

The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 is enacted to eradicate the practice of dowry, but the Act has so many loopholes.

The definition of “Dowry” (sec. 2) as at present is not specifically defined the term or incomplete, i.e., – if u analyse   it seems that –

• What is meant by the direct or indirectly?
• How one can define phrase “in connection with marriage”?
• What time period one can consider by the use of the phrase “any time after marriage”?
• Dose this definition includes gift and exchange?

The Act was sought to be amended in 1986 with a view to checking the misuse of the Act, introduced Sec.8-B which deals with appointment of Dowry Prohibition Officers by State Govt. The punishment prescribed for demanding, taking and giving dowry were very low. So the Act has been amended from time to time.

The major cause for failure of Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 is that an infringement of the provision of the Act is not made a cognizable offence.

At present the offence is non-compoundable and so the wives framed in large no. of cases or her family member simply for extracting money.

The Law commission recommended that the offence under sec. 498-A should be made compoundable offence with the permission of the court.

The justice Malimath committee on criminal justice reform also recommended that it should be made compoundable as well as bailable.

According to the opinion of the many people if offence will make compoundable it will decrease the cases burden of the court.

But I don’t think so that, the making offence compoundable or non-compoundable makes any difference. The evil like dowry is deeply rooted in the society it takes much time to eradicate this. At present this is the situation that there are so many laws but not the specific or exact one which solve the problem properly.

 

 

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Disclaimer:

This Article was prepared or accomplished by  Dipika Mahale in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the LawOF.in

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