dailyO
Politics

Anti-dowry law: How the government just made women more unsafe

Advertisement
Gyanant Singh
Gyanant SinghApr 08, 2015 | 16:05

Anti-dowry law: How the government just made women more unsafe

The Centre proposes to dilute anti-dowry laws in view of abuse. Though there’s a need to check misuse, watering down provisions might frustrate the very objective behind the laws enacted to counter the social evil.

The government is duty bound to prevent victimisation of innocent people but this should not be at the cost of justice to women being killed, driven to suicide or subjected to cruelty for dowry as it would be an insult to their injuries. The issue of abuse cannot be dealt with in isolation. Lawmakers should not lose sight of the fact that a penal provision should not be reviewed without considering it from the perspective of victims. The government’s reported move to make section 498A of IPC bailable and to provide for penalty for false cases etc has come in the backdrop of official statistics on low conviction rate and some judgements supporting claims of widespread misuse.

Advertisement

The latest National Crime Records Bureau data shows a conviction rate of only 16 per cent in cruelty cases lodged under section 498A. Given that several innocent people might have suffered incarceration, it is a matter of concern but inferences should not be drawn merely on this as many 498A cases end with settlements. Besides, victims hardly have a role in investigation and trial.

The proposed government decision may seem convincing but only as long as we do not consider the fact that the social purpose of the anti-dowry laws is yet to be achieved. More than 8,000 dowry deaths occur every year. Besides, there can be no statistics on the number of women who would have died or committed suicide disheartened in the absence of any legal shield. Section 498A, inserted in the IPC in 1983, is invoked when a woman is subjected to a cruel treatment of the nature which could drive her to commit suicide or injure herself.

Anyone abusing the process of law needs to be taken to task but singling out women filing false 498A cases will embolden those perpetuating such crimes. If the penalty is to be imposed for false cases, it should be for all offences. Besides, there is a provision in civil law to claim damages for malicious prosecution.

Advertisement

Though there is no official data on the extent, misuse has triggered a widespread bias against anti-dowry laws. The bias is evident in the 2014 SC judgement stressing that anti-dowry laws were being used “as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives”.

After making the statement which put dowry laws under the scanner, justice CK Prasad pointed to the low conviction rate despite a chargesheeting rate of 93.6 per cent and arrest of about two lakh people, including 47,951 women, in 2012 under section 498A. Incidentally, the facts do not directly support justice Prasad's statement. To the contrary, it shows most complaints passed scrutiny by police, leading to chargesheets.

True, as emphasised by justice Prasad, thousands of women also go to jail under the dowry laws. But it is not a woman versus man issue. The laws seek to provide justice to those committing suicide and suffering dowry deaths and not the mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law who perpetuate the social evil. Coming to arrests, he notes that it was not on account of fault in law but the system. “Not only this, the power of arrest is one of the lucrative sources of police corruption,” justice Prasad said, stressing the problem arose with police not following guidelines on arrests under Section 41 Criminal Procedure Code.

Advertisement

Though there can be no denial that men and women suffer on account of misuse of dowry laws, the problem is more on account of non-implementation of relevant procedural laws than on loopholes in dowry laws. Watering down legal provisions would amount to shifting the blame from the system on to the law and victims.

In fact the Committee of Petitions (Rajya Sabha) – while recommending against dilution of dowry laws – had warned the government in 2011 of such an eventuality if misuse was not checked. “The committee fears that failure to do so might leave no option except to dilute the law by making the same non-cognisable and bailable,” the panel said. The observation is turning out to be prophetic.

Last updated: April 08, 2015 | 16:05
IN THIS STORY
Please log in
I agree with DailyO's privacy policy