Anti Dowry Laws in India- A Legal Terrorism

Anti dowry law has been in debate since last two decades. We don’t have any evidence to show the truthiness of bad effects of anti dowry laws in India except the counting acquittal rate. It has been seen from the last 5 year that the misuse of un-exempted provisions of dowry law been increasing and in result the other party is facing the world with great loss. A long delayed case of dowry has been pending in district courts just due to clashes of hard provisions of law and lack of evidences. Even just after the complaint a woman can claim and complaint of other additional things as a right of wife like maintenance which leads to makeable financial burden on man irrespective of his financial and social position. Even if the complaint is false, the accused is presumed to be guilty until he or she proves innocence in the court. The maximum punishment if proven guilty is imprisonment for three years. After the Justice Malimath Committee Report and NCRB Observations of fake dowry cases the apex court of India relieved the accused on immediate arrest and made the sec 498 of Indian Penal Code become bailable. An arrest under any section only be made after reasonable satisfaction reached after due investigation as to the genuineness of the allegation because arrest gives humiliation, curtails freedom and cast scars forever. But in most of the cases of Section 498A, the police acted on auto piloted and make the arrest of husband and family which become rule rather than exception. Instead of rational inquiry the police make procedure harsh. The NCRB’s ‘Crime in India’ report categorizes crimes various heads of the IPC. If one looks at the respective conviction rates of all the categories, cases registered under Sec 498-A (Cruelty by Husband & Relatives) have one of the lowest conviction rates. In 9 out of these 10 years, the conviction rate of Sec 498-A cases was in the bottom three.