‘The New Legal Terrorism?’

(How rules meant for protection could be manipulated)

By: Akshita Singh

Behind those doors which have been closed for years are witnessing the death of humanity. Those unheard cries and wails which are hidden behind those locked doors. Most of the time those cries die out in the house itself in-spite of laws making it to go through the way of justice.

An image by The New York Times

Laws are responsible for all the orderliness in the universe and society. Human society framed certain laws for regulating its behaviour, although it may be based on some forceful considerations, such as long-standing custom, ‘human conscience’, prevailing level of social consciousness or dominant public opinion. For instance, a penal code which prescribes punishment for various types of offenses can be altered according to our sense of justice, its test is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in the moral sense.

The same thing happened to section 498A of IPC. Let’s discuss this law and figure out, the law which was framed with nobel intentions proved out to be something highly immoral and unjust. 

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In actuality, India has two main laws to protect its women citizens from the inbuilt domestic abuses. The first one is “Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961” (This act is a punishable offence under Indian Penal Code) better known as section 498A of IPC, and another is “The Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005”. 

These laws are meant to provide justice to the women who have been subjugated by their husbands and relatives for the means of dowry. These laws are meant to provide empowerment to women to fight against the domestic menaces caused to them. 

We all know that dowry has been a hazard for Indian society for centuries. It still exists, people do have that sort of mentality which makes their male child sellable. Gradually, the number of cases have reduced, and the awareness amongst people have increased. But we’ve been, yet, unable to eradicate this societal menace, completely.

We introduced immediate punishable actions against the accused of domestic violence challenges via section 498A of IPC, in the year 1983. This thing was intentioned to protect victim from the outside pressures that might cause her threats for filing case against her husband or in-laws. 

In 2018, The Supreme Court restored an immediate arrest provision in the dreaded Section 498A, IPC, with the rider that those arrested for cruelty to a married woman over dowry could approach the courts for bail to prevent the alleged misuse of the law.

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The offence was both non-cognisable and non-bailable, which implies that bail could only be granted at the discretion of a magistrate. The bench led by CJI Dipak Misra clarified that those arrested under the law could move the magistrate for bail, and the bail petitions will be heard the same day as far as possible.

Many reactions came from various organizations, and individuals. Women representators were highly dissatisfied and disappointed due to the fact that the protection of women has been ignored by the SC in it’s verdict, whereas, Family Welfare Institutions and equal rights activists found it very necessary. 

So, first thing that could struck to one’s mind might be, “What led Supreme Court make such amendments?”. The answer is quite simple, each and every law in this world could be shrewdly manipulated. The women protection laws (mentioned in this article), which were meant to stop abuses itself are getting abused. Yes, women started to use these laws for their ego issues. In this article we’ll discuss the misuse of section 498A of IPC.

As per some researches conducted by various human rights activist groups and institutions, it has been witnessed that the cases registered under Section-498A have the lowest conviction rate. Moreover, the records of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that there are 3.3 lakhs of cases registered as crime against women’s in 2016, and out of those cases recorded under Section-498A witnessed the lowest conviction rate of merely 12.2% among cases related to crime against women which includes acquittals of 39,248 cases and conviction of only 5,433 cases.

Here are some cases that screwed this law, and pointed out the unheard sides of men accused of the same charges: 

• Chandrabhan v/s state (2008): In this case Delhi High Court came to the conclusion that most of the complaints are filed in the heat of the moment over trifling fights and ego- clashes. 
• Sushil Kumar Sharma v/s Union of India (2005): In this case SC observed that mostly of the complaints filed under section 498A of IPC is being used on the basis of personal ego differences. SC stated it as “new legal terrorism”. 
• Rajesh Sharma & Others v/s State of UP: In this case SC stated that there’s an underlying assumption in the judgement that women misuse the law, and for this reason the law itself must be emasculated. 

Supreme Court, in order to prevent misuse the misuse of section 498A of  IPC directed the states to constitute a protocol. This protocol has to be followed after a case under this section been filed.

The cases of this genre would be first investigated and studied by the family welfare committees, these committees has to be set-up in every district under the District level services authorities.

No arrest will be made unless the committee report is received by the police. The respective committees will look into the bail applications on the same day. 

For the NRIs the Court made easier to escape from these legal allegations as no passports would be impounded, and no one could issue a Red Corner Notice to the accused.

The other side of the verdict claims the decision to be wicked. As this decision might lead to privatisation of police functions. 

It even allows a defaulting NRI husband to abscond to foreign land after claiming dowry. 

There has been instances where welfare committees often tend to become non-state vigilant groups. It is one thing to say that the allegations can be proved beyond reasonable doubt and another to say that the complaint is false.

A month period has been given to committees to study the It gives enough time to manipulate evidences. Even welfare committees may have biases.

Technically, law is the product of a prescribed procedure. It is valid only if it is properly enacted and recognized. Morality, on the other hand, is based on the sense of rightness and justice. Laws should be made in conformity with principles of morality. But, however, in actual practice, law and morality may take different courses. 

These amendments have caused ease to husbands as Supreme Court dismissed the concept of formal reporting of crimes against women. The creation of an intermediate body shows that the judiciary does not trust the very beneficiaries of this provision. 

It is not so hectic to frame a law or policy the most tricky part is the implementation of that law. In India, the ‘implementation’ of laws are poor. Perhaps, this is the reason why manipulation of laws and policies are likely to happen in all fields of society. 

The verdict delivered by SC is quite comprehensible. It’s totally based on what’s happening now with this law, but the most disturbing side of the amendments would be the female victims.

In many cases we would discover that the lady who files complaint of such allegations could be threatened by people around her, sometimes, even parents of such ladies wants their girl to adjust and compromise with the dispute.

Although, when accused turned out to be victim the laws need to favour them too. The issue is really not about which gender has the right to dominate over the other, the issue is basically about subjugating the other partner for the means of materialistic satisfaction. And no gender has any right to do anything like that.

Relationships doesn’t provide liscense to a particular gender to dominate neither they provide a chance for revenge. Relationships are beautiful, if the people who are making it are responsible enough to understand the importance of emotions and feelings, otherwise, it’s just an albatross around neck. 

Things could get worse and extremely ugly in courts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean to suffer the misbehaves and abuses from your partner. The voice has to be raised against evey atrocity. 

The heartbreaking truth of the present day society is those who needs justice never gets it, and mostly justice becomes something that could be approached by shrewdness. 

(The image used as featured image is by medium.com)

For further reading and better understanding I would recommend these below mentioned references:

"Indian Kanoon." Indian Kanoon, indiankanoon.org/search/      ?formInput=misuse%20of%20domestic%20violence%20act. Accessed 16 June 2020. 

"Mumbai Mirror." Mumbai Mirror, 26 Mar. 2018, mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/other/      domestic-violence-act-misused-in-some-cases/articleshow/63457171.cms.