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Govt to review anti-dowry law
NEW DELHI: For long, voices raised against the anti-dowry act were dismissed as those belonging to men desperately trying to retain their dominance over women. But now, an increasing number of women complaining against misuse of the act has forced the women and child development (WCD) ministry to initiate a review of the controversial legislation.
Said WCD joint secretary, Kiran Chadha, “We will be meeting a panel of lawyers and legal experts to review the law. We have been receiving so many complaints against the two laws — section 498A (harassment for dowry) and the domestic violence act.’’
The meeting is likely to be held on September 17.
The Indian Penal Code’s section 498A had long been seen by women activists as one of the foremost legal weapons for a woman shunned by her in-laws and her parents.
The government’s turnaround comes after an increasing number of complaints came from women themselves — mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law who ironically have fallen victim to the misuse of the two laws.
The statistics are telling. Raksha, an NGO working on marital harmony and child welfare, has analysed figures by the National Crime Records Bureau to deduce that 1.2 lakh women have been falsely implicated under 498A.
‘‘Every 21 minutes, an innocent woman is being arrested. While the number of arrests under 498A are increasing every year, what is not being considered is that the conviction rate in these cases is barely 2%,’’ Anupama Singh, Raksha spokesperson said.
Now, the official view has perhaps finally reflected a change in attitude towards a woman complainant.
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The Anti-Dowry law might have been inspited by good intentions on the part of the Government to curb dowry mennace, but that intention has been completely defeated with an increasing number of women filing up cooked up complains on concocted stories. This law should be scrapped, but so long as it exists on the stature book a provision should be introduced that the personal filing the complaint on false or flimsy grouns will be liable for punishment so severe that it is an eye opener for those misusing the law.
I very much appreciate if the 498A will be revised. It will help to the innocent persons to not to attempt for sucide for their prestige issue. It should be modified/revised so that the woman sholud be strictly punished if found false. After then, the false cases ratio will come down very fast.
No Revision is needed in s. 498a ipc. Only alert husbands and his relatives have to be courageous to challenge the Police Officer, Magistrate and APP as well as other advocates to treat living wife as a dowry death to make it cognizable offence u/s. 498a ipc.
So no change is necessary. The said law is already bailable in hands of magistrate because living wife has to make allegations complaint to Magistrate for cruelty. After examining the wife u/s. 200 cr p c, summons to husband can be sent to come prepared to have bail. Magistrates illegally entertain police officer’s police report for living wife u/s. 498a IPC.
See more details in website:
http://mrwfoundationindia.googlepages.com/498aipcreality
Ask by email mrwfoundation@gmail.com with copy to mulakhrajworldfoundation@gmail.com