In light of the rising number of false dowry cases, the Modi government has decided to amend the anti-dowry law, to make it less stringent.
The Law: Then and Now
As it stands presently, if a woman files a complaint alleging dowry harassment under section 498 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, it becomes a non-compoundable and non-bailable offence.
This means that neither can the petition be withdrawn till a verdict is reached nor can the parties settle the matter out of court. The husband and his parents and those named in the complaint are booked on grounds of cruelty and demand for dowry and arrested immediately.
The Modi government has proposed two changes to this law: one, making the offence compoundable (wherein both parties can come to a settlement without proceeding to litigation and all charges will be dropped once a consensus is arrived at) and two, imposing a penalty of Rs 15,000 as against the existing penalty of Rs 1000, if the complaint is found to be false.
What Will the Proposed Changes Do?
There are two factors to be considered here. For one, each year, there are nearly one lakh cases of dowry harassment that are investigated, of which nearly 10,000 are found to be false.
And second, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), dowry deaths have spiraled upwards from 6,851 in 2001 to 8,233 in 2012, while physical harassment cases have risen from 3,222 to 9,038 cases in these 11 years.
If anything, the existing law is the only strong recourse mechanism available to women.
The proposal has not come to the ministry yet but, I don’t think the law should be changed. I feel that this is the only law that gives women protection. It should stay as it is.
– Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development
Matrimonial lawyers at the Delhi High Court, while admitting to the fact that this was the easiest tool for women to misuse when filing for divorce, also stated that diluting it would provide ample ‘wiggle room’ to families that actually harassed women for dowry.
If the law is amended, the police will not be able to make an arrest without a warrant. The accused and his family will also be allowed two weeks within which they have to respond. Those two weeks can prove crucial because an immediate arrest is usually a preventive measure to avoid dowry deaths or escalated domestic violence.
– Senior Advocate, Delhi High Court (name withheld on request)
Other lawyers too, argued that the only benefit the proposed changes could have would be to reduce the burden of a litigation from the High Court.
Making this a compoundable offence would only reduce the pressure of litigations from the High Court. Otherwise, the anti-dowry law is just a toothless tiger. It will become difficult for genuine cases of dowry harassment to prove their veracity because essentially it is only the woman who is testimony to the extent of harassment while the husband’s family will firmly deny the charges.
– Rajiv Bajaj, Matromonial Lawyer, Delhi High Court
Even as ‘deliberate cruelty is unforgivable’, benevolence in the form of an amendment in the dowry law may just prove to be unfair.
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