-Laxmi Khawas, IILS
Women in India have been increasingly misusing the anti-dowry law to harass in-laws and restrained police from mechanically arresting the husband and his relatives on mere lodging of a complaint under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The fact lies here that there is very low conviction rate in such type of cases, Supreme Court in 3rd July 2014 directed the State Governments to instruct police “not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498A of IPC is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters (check list) provided under Section 41 of criminal procedure code. When we see Section 41 of Cr. PC lays down a 9 points check list police to weigh the need to arrest after examining the conduct of the including possibility of his absconding.
Expressing exasperation over rampant misuse of Section 498A, Apex Court said that if police arrested the accused, the magistrate should weigh the preliminary evidence against the Section 41 checklist before allowing further detention. The magistrate, while authorising detention of the accused shall peruse the report furnished by the police officer in terms of Section 41 and only after recording its satisfaction, the magistrate will authorize detention.
The Honorable Court also said that this check-list for arrest and detention would apply to all offences, which are punished with a prison term less than 7 years. Punishment under Section 498A is a maximum of three years but it had been made a cognizable and non-bailable offence, which made grant of bail to the accused a rarity in courts.
But the court ruled out the dowry harassment cases as the most abused and misused provision, though the legislature had enacted it with the laudable object to prevent harassment of women in matrimonial home it also said there had been a phenomenal increase in dowry harassment cases in India in the last few years. The fact that Section 498A is a cognizable and non-bailable offence has lent it a dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives. It is the most simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested under this provision. In a quite number of cases, bed-ridden grand-fathers and grand-mothers of the husbands, their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested.
