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In recent past, I came out of theater with a thousand
questions in my mind after watching “Daawat-E-Ishq”. Surely, all the girls are
not “Gullu” who fall in love with the honesty of “Taru” and will have a happy ending
by a proper married life. The movie not only raised the issue of 498A but with
the same effort the evil of dowry was also raised. I give it a 10 on 10 to show
both the sides of a coin to reflect how both the sex are getting dragged into
the crime.
We all are more or less aware about the crime called “Dowry”
and to protect the society from the same and similar crimes the law came in the
form of “498A” of The Indian Penal Code.
So, with the law came its use and misuse in the form of Needy and Greedy. Let’s read the most talked about or heard about section to
be aware of the law:
Section 498A
of The Indian Penal Code:
Husband or
relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty.—Whoever, being the
husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to
cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
three years and shall also be liable to fine. Explanation.—For the purpose of
this section, “cruelty” means:
(a) any wilful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the
woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or
health (whether mental or physical) of the woman; or
(b) harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to
coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any
property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person
related to her to meet such demand.
Don’t raise your eyebrows on only plain reading of
the section, the misuse is, the so called beloved newly married wife will go to
the nearby police station lodging the complaint against the Husband, his
mother, sister (mostly along with the husband the female members of the family
and senior citizens are dragged, taking the advantage that no man will let the
female members and senior citizens go to jail) on the basis of which the
persons against whom the complaint has been lodged are arrested immediately, without
sufficient investigation and put behind bars on a non-bailable term. Even if the complaint is fake, you shall be presumed guilty until you
prove that you are innocent. Mostly
in such false cases a handsome amount is asked to take the charges back and to
go for a mutual divorce. Even the victims agrees to pay to save themselves from
the harassment and damage to their social reputation, the main reason be mostly
to protect the female members from the so called police –court-kachahari matters.
Now, read some of
the related facts used in judgment given by Honorable Supreme Court of India in
the matter of ARNESH KUMAR Vs STATE OF BIHAR & ANR. dated 2nd July, 2014:
“There is phenomenal increase in matrimonial
disputes in recent years. The institution of marriage is greatly revered in
this country. Section 498-A of the IPC was introduced with avowed object to
combat the menace of harassment to a woman at the hands of her husband and his
relatives. The fact that Section 498-A is a cognizable and non-bailable offence
has lent it a dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are used as
weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives. The simplest way to harass is
to get the husband and his relatives arrested under this provision. In a quite
number of cases, bed-ridden grand-fathers and grand-mothers of the husbands,
their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested. “Crime in India 2012
Statistics” published by National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs
shows arrest of 1,97,762 persons all over India during the year 2012 for
offence under Section 498-A of the IPC, 9.4% more than the year 2011. Nearly a
quarter of those arrested under this provision in 2012 were women i.e. 47,951
which depicts that mothers and sisters of the husbands were liberally included
in their arrest net. Its share is 6% out of the total persons arrested under
the crimes committed under Indian Penal Code. It accounts for 4.5% of total
crimes committed under different sections of penal code, more than any other
crimes excepting theft and hurt. The rate of charge-sheeting in cases under
Section 498A, IPC 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
of which on current estimate, nearly 3,17,000 are likely to result in
acquittal.”
The difference between the dowry and the 498A is the
demand of dowry is made before marriage in 90% of the cases and we have a
choice in our hand to say a clear “NO” to it. Which means the society needs to
say “NO” for the marriages where dowry is demanded, but what about 498A? It
starts with a happy marriage, where the boy and his family go for an actual
marriage but the girl and her family goes for a so called “Glorious Crime of
Marriage” to earn some easy money.
Following are some of the steps which you can use to
protect yourself from 498A if you are planning to get married and you are MALE:
1.
Do proper background checkup of the prospective bride.
2. Check her and her families back
ground, like if she has a sister, what is her marital status, if divorcee the
reasons and all.
3. Specially, if they have recently
shifted to the home, you have been taken to meet them, check from where they
belong to, where they were living earlier and the checks on native place.
4. If the spending of the family is
more than their income, stay away.
5. If even before marriage, the girl
have so many emotional things to tell you, like how much she loves you, how
good a wife she will turn to be, how much respect she is going to give your parents,
what a bad past she has but faced that bravely etc
6. If you are going for a second
marriage and the girl is also a divorcee, better to check what charges she has
made up for his ex-husband and not only read the court orders.
7. If the girl has a full-fledged
relationship, might be some close relative too and a frequent visitor to her
family or her town, give a deeper thought or
investigate/enquire deep down to the root or time to probe further.
8. If the girl has a close
lawyer/matrimony consultant friend specially a male, who might help her in
finding the prospective groom/divorce case, think twice.
9. If you are going for a marriage
from some matrimonial site, better to hire a detective agency side by side for
the short listed girls, it may cost you a few thousand rupees but it may save a
fortune too.
10. Check the birth certificate/
marksheets etc. of the girl in original.
In short and simple, I will sum-up 498A as a “Sword with double sharp
edge”/ Do-Dhari-Talwar. It is very useful for the one who are being victims of
the crime of “Dowry and harassment” but the real question is in how many
genuine cases the wife was able to prove the misdeed, as of the facts the one
who shall be sheltered under the law, has mostly been deprived by the delayed
justice, as well said justice delayed is justice denied. On the other
hand the greedy, who is making money by misuse of it, by charging the groom and
his family under the fake cases are not only making some easy money, but also
the person and his family charged by the fake case are drained mentally,
physically and financially. Ironical fact of this legal provision is the
sisters/mothers and other female relatives of the groom are treated as
criminals but the wife and her family even when the fake charges are proved get
released easily.
The law shall provide equality for all, else soon the proverb that the
Women is weaker section of society will turn as Men is weaker section of
society. I personally plea for such a law, which protect the rights, provide
equality and also include strict provisions for those who misuse the law and
play with it for their personal benefits.
~By Nikita Singh~
