Law against Dowry - 498A

Dowry system was followed in India since very long time, it started even before the British rule. The idea behind dowry was to ensure that the bride is financially stable after getting married. Hence, her parents started giving her money, financial assets, land, property, etc. to make sure that their daughter is happy and independent after getting married.

But when British rule came into India, they restricted woman to have any kind of property. Hence, all the kids that were being given to the bride by her parents was started being owned by her husband. The greed has been slowly and gradually started increasing, and they started harassing their wife for demanding more dowry. This system started creating problem in today’s society. To curb this kind of system, these laws were introduced in India.

What does dowry exactly mean?

Not all gifts that have been given to the bride at her time of marriage is a dowry.

Dowry is being defined in Section-2 of Dowry Prohibition Act. What kind of gifts are being considered as dowry? Any property either it can be movable as well as immovable means AC,TV, refrigerator or any other thing, etc. or immoval means land, property, etc.. It refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride’s family gives to the bridegroom, his parents and his relatives as a condition of the marriage before the marriage or at any time of marriage. But it doesn’t include dower or mahr in the case of persons to who are following the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat).

The practice of dowry has brough the beautiful institution of marriage to mere contract of giving and taking money, valuable assets in exchange of marriage.

A few social evils that dowry has brought along itself are like female feticide. One of the biggest reason behind this kind of practice is the thought that when a girl child is born, a lot has to be spent on a marriage. People find it easy to eradicate the root cause of the problem that they think is female, Many young girls commit suicide as at time the parents are not being able to marry off their child. The only reason is the heavy demand of Dowry. This creates a lot of mental frustration in the minds of parents as well as the young girl child, and she finds it easy to commit suicide to get rid of a mental problem. Also, many girls are being kept uneducated because the parents think that this money would be used in future for getting them married off and could be used in Dowry. Also, the rate of crimes such as prostitution, child trafficking has been increasing due to the demand of Dowry. Some parents don’t support their girl for divorce and it leads to other crimes.

These are some of the social evils and there might be many more. The government of India has brought certain legal framework to stop this practice. First legal framework was passed by government of India called Dowry Prohibition Act in the 1961, making a dowry demand illegal in the marriages.

Section 2 of dowry prohibition act defines dowry. Now let us understand the remaining sections of Dowry Prohibition Act, Section 3 of Dowry Prohibition Act talks about the offender and its punishment. It states that it is an offence to ask or give dowry so the family of the bridegroom will be liable for taking dowry and the family of the bride will be liable for giving their consent to give dowry. Also, whoever takes or gives dowry will be punished, atleast for five years.

Next, Section 4 talks about penalties for demanding dowery, if any person directly or indirectly demands dowry from a parent’s relative or guardian of bride or bridegroom, then that person shall be punished with that imprisonment, which is not less than six months and this could be extended to two years along with a fine of ten thousand rupees. The Supreme Court held that mere demand of Dowry before marriage is an offence.

Section 4A, which states that if there is any advertisment in the newspapers, or any other media which promotes the dowry, then such person will be punished with imprisonment, which is not less than six months and which may be extended to five years. Or he will be punished with a fine, which may be extended to fifteen thousand rupees.

Next legal framework is the criminal code. Dowry death is now dealt with under Section 80 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 (formerly Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for offences before 1 July 2024). It stipulates that if the death of a woman is caused within seven years of marriage by burns or bodily injury, or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances, and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or his relative in connection with a demand for dowry, this is punishable with imprisonment not less than seven years, which may be extended to imprisonment for life.

The court has laid down the following guidelines for establishing an offence of dowry death, they are as follows.

• The death of the woman must have been caused by burns or bodily injury, or have occurred otherwise than under normal circumstances.
• The death must have occurred within seven years of her marriage.
• Soon before her death, the woman must have been subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or his relatives in connection with a demand for dowry.

Cruelty by a husband or his relatives is now an offence under Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, with cruelty defined in Section 86 (both formerly Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860). If any woman is being harassed by her husband or by her in-laws, then the husband or in-laws shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to a fine. The accompanying presumption is now found in the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023, at Section 118 (formerly Section 113B of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872). It provides that where a woman has died and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment in connection with a demand for dowry, the court shall presume that the person who so subjected her caused the dowry death.

There are always two sides of a coin. Not all cases that are being filed under the dowry laws result in conviction, and courts have repeatedly cautioned that these provisions must not be misused. A low conviction or high acquittal rate is not, by itself, proof that complaints are false, so this is an area to be approached with care. So whenever a law is being made for your protection, make sure you use it in a correct way and not destroy any person’s life. Contrary to a common misconception, the cruelty provision (formerly Section 498A IPC, now Sections 85-86 BNS) never required the husband and his family to be automatically arrested when a wife complains. In Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014), the Supreme Court directed that the police must not arrest mechanically; before arresting they must satisfy the checklist of conditions then in Section 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (now Section 35 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023) and record their reasons in writing, while magistrates must scrutinise those reasons before authorising any detention.

If any woman is facing this kind of problem, this kind of harassment for dowry demand by her husband or by in-laws, please do go and raise your voice. Register a complaint in your nearest police station and feel free to contact us for any help.