History of IPC 498a as known to common man

History of IPC 498a as known to common man 

Before 1980′s dowry deaths were said to be a widespread menace at
least in the lower economic strata of the society. There were laws to
punish the offender in the cases of murder and suicide of married
woman. But in certain scenarios where wife attempt to suicide but
survived, offenders were set free because they cannot be charged
with:- 

IPC 307 (murder attempt) because it was a suicide attempt
IPC 306 (Abetment of suicide) because suicide never happened.
Act 46 of 1983 with reasonably high level of clarity explains in its
‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’ that the said amendment is to deal
effectively on dowry related harassment. Supreme Court has iterated
the same in various judgments. 

Allegation of abuse of law 

A good explanation about the abuse of this law is given by Dr. Anupama
Singh in her petition. I would like to add that due to the heavy
misuse of this law, finding genuine cases are harder than finding a
needle in the haystack. The source of data shown below is from
National Crime Records Bureau. 

Motives for Abuse 

IPC 498a is not the only law that is getting abused in India. Where
ever there is a street fight or boundary dispute generally both
parties get admitted in hospital and accuse each other for the
“injuries”. Theft cases to cheat insurance companies are another good
example. Now the new one, aside from IPC 498a, to add to the list and
will come to top in the list sooner, rather than later, is Protection
of Women from Domestic Violence Act because of its inherent lenient
nature to literally rob money and property from men in the household. 

The key motives behind the abuse of family laws are money, precisely
ALIMONY.  At present India has no set rules regarding alimony and men
or women don’t know how to handle separation; existence of multiple
maintenance laws are making divorce battle more miserable. On the
other hand this is the best indicator that women have now come forward
to the mainstream and no longer an under privileged class. 

A typical dowry harassment allegation leads to:- 

1)     Husband facing threats on personal safety and that of his
family from wife and in-laws. Unable to cop up with the harassment, a
good number of them opt for suicide too. [NCRB data show below] 

2)     Arbitrary arrest of husband and his entire family without any
investigation. 

3)     Husband’s home, possessions and livelihood are at high risk and
deprived by law. – Courts order huge bail amount without looking at
merits of the complaint. Those who are in Government job get suspended
because of arbitrary police custody and remand. NRIs loose their jobs
because they cant join back to work on time. 

4)     Husband’s have absolutely no recourse when those who exercise
power over them abuse it – highly discriminatory treatment by the
police and courts because of the social and statutory requirement to
favour women. 

5)     Violates the fundamental right to live with dignity. 

Prevention is better than cure 

Plugging the holes in IPC 498a may solve the current problem for the
time being, but legislator should recognize the sea change that India
has undergone, and is undergoing, and the dire need to overhaul the
entire family laws at the earliest and there should be a rapid
mechanism for sustained social engineering so as to reduce the
irretrievable damage that it makes to the grass root level man-woman
relationship. 

Let me do some math here. 

Total number of 498a cases registered in 2008 = 1,64,861 

Approximate number of accused, taking an average of 5 per case =
8,24,305 

Total number of dowry deaths reported in 2008 = 8172 [Source: NCRB] 

If I’m forced to believe that dowry harassment and death exist in this
21st century, how much would it be proportionately, taking this death
count to face value? Not to mention that the legal PRESUMPTION and
mandatory inquiry upon anyone’s request shoots up the dowry death
figures in the book. 

In Narender Singh Arora Vs State (Govt. of NCT Delhi) & Ors. Honorable
Delhi High Court stated 

“5. This case is a reflection of mentality which is now taking grip of
parents of a deceased wife in the criminal cases. Whenever a woman
dies an unnatural death within seven years of her marriage at in-laws’
house, whatever be the cause of death, the in-laws must be hanged.
This case also shows how truth is losing significance because of the
ego of the litigants to see that in-laws should be hanged.” 

Center for Social Research, a feminist organization, in its 2005
report admits that 98% of 498a cases are false and do not end up in
conviction. That makes the number of convictions as per the data given
above to 3297. Reading all those facts and figures together I tend to
believe that IPC498a is been used in its true intend, only in case of
REAL dowry death that means ONLY along with IPC 304(B). 

That being said, when we have more powerful laws IPC306 (Abetment of
suicide), IPC 307 (Attempt to murder), IPC 302 (Punishment for murder)
where the punishment is 10 years and even capital punishment, what is
the need to keep IPC 498a just for harassing crores of men women age
old parents and even children? 

Indian Express in today’s news (02-dec-2010) reported “Woman, paramour
booked for pushing husband to attempt suicide” which says
“The police said Trivedi told them that he was mentally harassed and
threatened by his wife Archana, whom he married six months ago. He
claimed Archana asked him to file a divorce case and claimed alimony.
She reportedly threatened to slap a dowry case against him and his
parents and book them under domestic violence Act. Based on the call
details and SMS produced by Trivedi, the police have registered a case
against Archana, her Jamnagar-based brother Harish Dave and her lover
Anil Goswami,” said Gandhidham police. The preliminary investigation
revealed that Archana and two other accused have been threatening
Trivedi and book him under dowry case, if he refused to give her
divorce.” (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/woman-paramour-booked-for-
pushing-husband-to-attempt-suicide/719119/0) 

I would like to point to the first section of this document again and
request the panel to double check, whether or not we as a nation have
achieved the goal, the original intend of Act 46 of 1983. Twenty seven
years had gone by, altogether new generation having totally different
attitude and mentality with totally different goals and ambitions in
life getting into marriage and even live-in relationship; do the
circumstances that lead to Act 46 of 1983 still exist? 

Over 76,000 people were arrested while TADA was in force from 1987 to
1995.  The conviction rate for these arrests was less than one
percent. TADA was later repealed on the grounds of human rights
violation. From year 1995 to 2008, 1,575,164 cases were registered
under section 498a of Indian penal code and with an average of five
accused in each case the number of arrests made was approximately
7,875,820. Is this over 7million gross HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS not
enough to wipe off this notorious section from the rule books?