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(This was first published on 1 June. It has been republished from The Quint's archives to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November.)
The Supreme Court has recently passed a judgment explicating the law on dowry deaths in India. Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 — the law in question — was introduced in 1986, specifically to tackle the growing menace of dowry deaths in India.
The SC, in its judgment, has lamented that dowry-related deaths continue unabated in present-day India.
Section 304B provides that when a woman dies due to burns or bodily injury or of unnatural circumstances, within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or his relatives in connection with any demand for dowry, such death shall be called ‘dowry death’.
The husband and his relative/s shall be presumed to have caused her death.
The Bench has based its judgment on the premise that the phrase ‘soon before her death’ has proved to be contentious and aided acquittals. The SC chides trial courts for construing ‘soon before’ to mean ‘immediately before’ the death of the woman, an interpretation which is often difficult to prove for the prosecution.
The SC has previously explored what constitutes ‘soon before’ as found in section 304B. In 2000, in the case of Kans Raj v. State of Punjab, (2000) 5 SCC 207, the Court observed that ‘soon before’ is a relative term, which should be considered under specific circumstances of each case.
The demand of dowry, cruelty or harassment based upon such demand and the date of death should not be too remote in time which, under the circumstances, be treated as having become stale. A similar observation was made by the Court in Rajinder Singh v. State of Punjab, (2015) 6 SCC 477 in 2015.
These previous judgments made no attempt to explain how courts should arrive at ‘proximate and live link’ (an incident that is not immediately prior to the death of a woman, but not so remote that the cruelty itself has become stale), which rendered the observations rhetorical.
According to data provided by the NCRB, more than 90 percent cases relating to dowry deaths are pending in trial courts across India. A considerable number of cases registered end in compromise between the accused and the family of the deceased, even though the law does not envisage any such compromise.
The SC has assumed that cases end in acquittal owing to a flawed interpretation of the words ‘soon before’.
Often, family members turn hostile and refuse to testify, thus collapsing the case of the prosecution. In cases where the prosecution is able to adduce evidence and witnesses, trial courts routinely reject the existence of any dowry-related harassment prior to a woman’s death. They reject the testimonies of the victims’ families, even dying declarations on inconsequential grounds and acquit on technicalities.
If a woman is harassed after months, or years into her marriage, courts cite ‘passage of time’ to infer that the harassment does not constitute demand for dowry.
When the main ingredient of the offence itself is not met, the question of interpretation of the term ‘soon before her death’ is redundant.
The Supreme Court is so removed from reality that it continues to make observations that have no bearing on the practices and workings of the police and lower courts.
Trial courts are often biased against women and disregard the legislative intent of the provision they are enforcing.
A stand-alone order of the Supreme Court is likely to have no impact, unless the lower judiciary is sensitised to the plight of women, the legislative intent behind welfare legislations, and given a crash course in criminal procedure.
(Neha Singhal is a Senior Resident Fellow and leads work in the area of Criminal Justice. She was Deputy Director, Death Penalty Research Project at NLU, Delhi. She is a National Law School of India University (NLSIU) graduate, and holds a Masters in Criminal Justice from the University of Kent, Canterbury. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for them.)
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Published: 01 Jun 2021,09:22 AM IST