This is a Report based on 5 years Research and Study on dowry Prohibition act, its
use and misuse.This Reasearch conducted by our own Experts of MyNation for Save
Indian Society,and not funded by any gender biased organisations. We
studied 1500 Plus Families, these are feed backs from them and from the
reports published by media.
What is IPC-498a
?
Cognizable – The accused can be arrested and
jailed without warrant or investigation Non-Bailable – The
accused must appear in the court to request bail Non-Compoundable – The
complaint cannot be withdrawn by the petitioner
The accused, on a
woman's one complaint, are considered guilty until proven innocent, and the
burden is on the accused to prove their innocence in the courts. It is even more
torturous that old ailing parents too are arrested prior to investigation. Is
this not violation of Human Rights of Indian citizen?
When an FIR (First Information Report) under IPC
section 498A (anti-dowry law) is registered by a woman, the accused -
the husband and his old parents, brothers, sisters, relatives - are
arrested and jailed without investigation. The Supreme Court of India
has ruled several times that arrest should be an exception, and not compulsory.
Why is there no penalty for disobeying the Supreme Court's orders? Is it not
mental cruelty to subject a person to arrest without investigation or reasonable
cause? Police are subjected to gender sensitization training wherein they are
forced to take women's complaint and arrest the accused even when they find the
case to be fabricated. And in case the police do not react on a woman's false
complaint, the women groups are given unnecessary powers to take legal action
against the officer-in-charge of the police station.
As per our Study, we found out that, it is a custom in
India to give support to bride in the form of gold and valuables to support her
future life with her husband, as husband take home the bride's Father's
financial burden.
There are certain natural problems in every marriage that
are always resolved amicably. In olden day, men and women used to manage these
trivial differences in their marriages, but today's modern women are not ready
to compromise on petty issues, which are part and parcel of a married life.
Shobha [Name Changed] says dowry is not an issue. Ours was
love-cum arranged marriage. I know my father's capacity and how much he
can give. And after marriage there is not chance takeing any money, so i only
told my Husband,that he can take.we happy with that,it helped us to build our
Family.we should not take Stridhan as dowry.
When we get marry, to make
new house, start family we need money,from girl side her father should provide
to start family,and man should not demand more than what girls family offer.Says
Priya[Name changed]
We are not talking about the dowry deaths or physical
injury cases but about dowry harassment cases that require no evidence and can
be filed based on a single complaint by the wife. With an estimated of 60,000
such accusations per year and an average of 4 members of the husband's family
falsely implicated in each of these 498A cases, about 240,000 people are
directly affected by these false accusations.
Latest Statistics
Published on IBN-CNN.
*In 2004, 58,319 dowry cases were
registered. *1,34,757 men were arrested. *47,828 cases have reached the
charge sheet stage. *10,491 dowry cases were not charge sheeted as they were
based on frivolous ground. *However, 5,739 men have been convicted but more
than four times that number have been acquitted (24,127)
The
controversial section not only covers dowry, but a wide spectrum of incidents
including cruelty, causing injury and danger to mental or physical health.
[Source:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tortured-hubbies-victims-of-498a/27446-3.html
] as on June 30 2005 are those under
sections 498 and 498(A). In the first six months this year, 3801 new cases under
just these two sections were instituted.
Thanks to the awareness levels
amongst women, many more are approaching the courts today than before. Consider
this against the number of cases that are disposed. They are only 2432 cases. Of
them, only 164 cases led to convictions. 1449 cases ended in acquittal with the
women considering further appeals. [source :
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/full_story.php?content_id=
79802
]
This poorly formulated law is
inviting women to file false cases, and causing the imprisonment of innocent
husband and his old parents without investigation. They are put behind bar along
with other criminals. These innocent people undergo stigmatization and emotional
trauma even before the trial in the court of law, which leads to emotional,
physical and financial torture. Some of the falsely accused have committed
suicide after being jailed, unable to bear the social consequences. Helplessness
drove these innocent families to commit suicide. What is the Government doing to
protect these innocent families?
Result of False Accusations.
As per Recent report from Ahmedabad, Rajesh Hasmukh Desai, a married man, committed
suicide. He was falsely charged under IPC 498A. If a woman dies in "any"
circumstances within seven years of marriage, police, by default, will arrest
the husband and his parents for abetting suicide of a woman or for dowry death.
But in this case, police did not interrogate his wife, nor took any action
against her. Rajesh's case file was closed and the actual perpetrator got
scot-free. Why the possibility of the wife driving her husband Rajesh Desai
to suicide was ruled out ? Why she is not punished for abetting her
husband's suicide?
A study by Professor K. Nagaraj, senior economist at
the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) The
distribution of suicides by marital status reveals some alarming pattern. The
rates do not vary much between the sexes for the never married.
Among those currently married, while the rate for males is about 17 per
100,000 persons, the rate for females is 11.4 per 100,000.
Among those widowed, while the rate for males is 21 per 100,000 persons,
the rate for females is also significantly lower, at 6.6 per 100,000.
Among divorced males the suicide rate is 164 per 100,000 persons, but
even in this class, among females the rate is only 63 per 100,000.
While the suicide rate for separated men is about 167, for females it is
only 41 per 100,000 persons.
Such
alarming statistical reports have not yet convinced the Government that men too
are victims of domestic violence and not providing them legal protection will
only increase the suicide numbers for men.
Despite the recommendations of the Supreme
Court of India and Justice Malimath Committee that the legislative arm should
modify the laws such that the innocent are protected. The suggested amendment in
the 498A law has been largely ignored. Innocent men and old parents are visiting
women cell for help, but they are neglected. Unchecked, this
social evil is threatening the foundation of the Indian Family
system.
Why do people misuse IPC 498a ?
Legal Extortion – When
marriage is on the brink of Divorce, she finds no better weapon to harass her
husband and in-law than 498A. Women will blackmail her husband and in-laws and
coerce them to fulfill her demands or else she will file a false complaint
against them. The husband knows that the law indiscriminately favours the woman
and so he agrees to her selfish demands.
Pre/extra marital Affairs – She
marries to satisfy her parents without disclosing her past. When the husband
finds out about her affairs, she then files a false dowry case to blackmail
him.
Domination – Wife wants the husband to abandon his parents and
siblings, so that she can have total control over his finances and social
behavior, including his life-style.
Custody - Deny the father and his
family access to their child(ren).
Fraudulent Marriages - Many times
girl's family will not disclose actual facts of their daughter, at the time of
marriage. Such facts, if known by the groom, the marriage would have never taken
place. And when the husband stands his ground, the girl and her family begins
their legal extortion.
In-Laws - When modern women are unable to adjust
with her in-laws, when they find it difficult to dominate her husband and make
him dance on her tunes, she goes for filing a false dowry case.
Consider a person who
works extremely hard to make his career in this competitive World. Then he
marries a beautiful and innocent looking wolf who drags him to court. There he
is bound to lose all dignity, child custody and above all 50% of his income. He
is forced to give out all his savings and family's investments to this woman.
Using his money, the wolf teaches to the child that his/her father was bad.
Despite feeding the child of fathers' money, the child, believing the wolf's
teachings, begins to hate the father. He has nothing to look at when he grows
old.
This is nothing but sheer cruelty. Extreme disaster and
an unending mental trauma. Apart from this I've seen men being ditched by
various girls before marriage. In cities it is common that girl have many
boyfriends. And they choose the richest among them for marriage. Rests are
ditched. And few weaker among them commit suicide. Says Amit Agarwal, an
victim of 498A.
Out of 100 cases that are ordered for
investigation under 498A, only in 2 cases the accused get
convicted.
''People generally use this law to facilitate
divorce. And often, it's the lawyers who advise the women to implicate their
in-laws under the provisions of this Act,'' says Shantosh Singh, chairperson of
Women Welfare Counseling Cell. Often, the number of items given in dowry is
inflated to claim a high settlement amount. "There are only 10 per cent cases
based on truth, and people usually come to us and ask specifically to mention
the element of dowry in their divorce petitions," says Amrikh Singh Kalra,
advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Women mis(using) laws to get
even ? NEW DELHI, Oct 18 (PTI) —Laws against violence at home may or may not
have come to the rescue of battered women, but some of them have been accused of
abusing them to get an easy divorce or settle other little domestic disputes.
[Souce:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99oct19/nation.htm#7 ]
According to the available statistical
information from the National Crime Records Bureau and information available
from NGOs working with victims of violence, there is a general tendency to avoid
seeking redressal among the victims of domestic violence. However, when a victim
of domestic violence seeks help from any of the agencies, be it family, friends,
NGOs, or lawyers, before registering a complaint, at each stage she is asked to
reconcile the matter or to put up with the situation. Reconciliation in 498A
cases takes place at every stage including the police station, Crime against
Women Cells and courts.
We found that in five cases filed under Section
498A the parties settled the matter after agreeing on maintenance and
divorce.
In a majority of the cases before a victim filed the complaint
under Section 498A, the minimum period she suffered physical and mental torture,
was for about three years.
The trial process is quite lengthy and the
proportion of pending cases is quiet high (out of the 40 cases based on victims'
interviews which went for trial in court, 28 cases are still pending). In the
cases tracked, the normal trial period was between five to ten years.
"It was found that it was difficult to prove physical and mental
torture. In all the eight cases in which the accused were acquitted, the victims
were found to have suffered physical and mental torture, but as there was not
enough evidence to prove torture, the accused were let off.
The cases
where the accused were convicted had been filed under Section 498A along with
section 304B and 302, which are applicable after the death of the victim. There
were no convictions in any of the cases registered only under Section 498A.
It has been found that out of 30 cases there is not a single case where
the accused has been convicted only under Section 498A. The accused have been
acquitted (11 cases) by the court where the prosecutor failed to provide
evidentiary proof of cruelty, mainly mental, inflicted on the victim as provided
under Section 498A IPC.
The judicial authorities of India, in number of
landmark judgments, have taken a serious view of the growing tendency to falsely
implicate innocent members of the husband's family in dowry cases. Describing
misuse of IPC-498a law as "legal terrorism", the Supreme Court said no one could
be allowed to unleash frivolous proceedings on this count as the provisions of
Section 498A "is intended to be used a shield not as an assassin's weapon."
"The stringent dowry laws, meant to deter dowry-seekers, are being
increasingly misused by the very people they are meant to protect. The last
three years have seen a steep rise in the number of cases of harassment for
dowry". [Source:
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=
170603. ]
There are many heart-rending stories of
innocent families being arrested without investigation and put in judicial
custody. While IPC 498A is supposed to be a law to protect women, ironically it
harms many more women. For every male accused of IPC 498A, there is at
least one woman (his mother or sister) who is implicated in a crime that never
occurred or they never stayed together. If there are more women in the family
they too are accused irrespective of their age, health condition, marital status
or their physical proximity to the complainant. There are many Reports of
married sisters of husband, even they are pregnant or with a baby in hands are
jailed without any investigation or the entire family is ruthlessly arrested
without investigation and there are no words to describe the financial hardship
and emotional trauma that they have to endure. Children suffer whether they are
jailed along with their mothers or are separated from them during that time.
Another striking feature of these victim stories is that the
complainants, in collaboration with the police make sure that the arrests are
strategically planned to harass and demoralize the accused, to make them succumb
to the fear of being imprisoned and to extract huge amounts of money thereafter.
Here is list of few Victims are harassed for many years, without rays of
hope to get Justice.
Everyone knows there are loopholes in 498A,
and media reports, Judges warn and Politician admit openly.
An offence
has been committed by the accused upon the sole testimony of the woman alleging
abuse. Given that lying in court has never been taken seriously enough to invoke
punishment, laws which presume guilt even before the trial has begun are prone
to great misuse.
Even there is 98% misuse, why
not there is any change?
Because it is not only against husband but his
whole Family. The Western funded Supporter of this law, determined to ruin
Family system of India and sabotage Indian Society.