Friends, you all must be reading in newspaper court cases relating to dowry allegations, physical torture by husband and his family members, the death of women, and so many other cases of similar nature. These type of cases drags on for years in Trial Court, High Court, and Supreme Court. Sometimes there are false allegations by women to settle their personal scores.
Yesterday, in a case which reached up to Supreme Court (SC), the two judge bench in their order said that only general allegations that all accused harassed the woman (bride/daughter in law) mentally and threatened her to terminate her pregnancy, can at best be said to have made out on account of small skirmishes.
The bench also pointed out that the court has, at numerous instances, expressed concern over the misuse of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the increased tendency of implicating relatives of the husband in matrimonial disputes, without analyzing the long-term ramifications of a trial on the complainant as well as the accused. It is further manifest that false implication by way of general omnibus allegations made in the course of matrimonial dispute, if left unchecked, would result in misuse of the process of law. Therefore, this court by way of its judgements has warned the courts from proceedings against relatives of husband and in-laws when no prima facie case is made out against them.
These observations were part order in a case lodged by a woman in Bihar against her husband and in-laws. As the husband who was also made an accused did not challenge the FIR, the court refrained from dealing with the allegations against him and granted relief to his five relatives in the case. While granting relief to the petitioner, the court noted that there were no specific allegations thatwere general in nature which was not sufficient enough to hold a trial.
The court further added “ Upon a perusal of the contents of FIR, it is revealed that general allegations are leveled against appellants. The complaint alleged that ‘all accused harassed her mentally and threatened her of terminating the pregnancy’. Furthermore, no specific and distinct allegations have been made against either of the appellants herein, ie, none of the appellants have been attributed any specific roles in furtherance of the general allegations made against them. This simply leads to a situation wherein one fails to ascertain the role of each accused in furtherance of the offence”.
In an another case, SC has convicted a woman under dowry harassment charges in connection with the case of the alleged suicide of her daughter-in-law. The court rejected the appeal of 64 year old woman accused of dowry harassment of her daughter-in-law. The court said “ it is more serious offence when a woman metes out cruelty to her daughter-in-law. When a woman does not protect another woman, the latter becomes vulnerable”. They convicted the mother-in-law, and gave her a jail term of 3 months.
These are two types of cases relating to the in-laws of the harassed women. In one case they are acquitted by SC, and in other case convicted.
But there are numerous cases still lying in different courts under section 498A. In most of cases the fact is that the woman is literally harassed which might lead to her committing suicide. But in such types of cases, the offenders are generally acquitted by trial courts because of insufficient evidence, because after the death of a woman there is no one who can give true evidence. In the balance type of cases, generally, it is the woman who takes the help of Section 498A files a false complaint against her husband and his relative to settle the score. As per this section of the law, if the complaint is filed under this section then it is the duty of the Police to file a charge sheet against the husband and his relatives.
This section 498A was introduced to help women in distress, but is being misused by some women. The law ministry has to look into the lacune of this section, so that no one can misuse them.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
9th February 2022.
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Dowry is the property and money that a bride brings to her husband’s house at the time of her marriage. … Section 498A of the IPC makes ‘cruelty by husband or relatives of husband’ a cognizable and non-bailable offence and includes within its purview dowry related harassment of the wife
Sapna wadhwa
Dowry system no longer exists, still some people directly or indirectly demand. It is a shame.
At times to punish husband or his relatives, at d time of divorce false allegations r made by both d sides. Thorough investigations should b made by police so that innocent people r not punished.