All
of us knows a number of laws of Indian
Penal Code (IPC) should be amended or terminated. I am going to discuss
about a law of IPC misusing by the people a lot. That is Section 498A of IPC.
Before
the discussion we have to understand what is Section 498A..? What is the role
of this law...? The definition of Section 498A is simple.it states that A
Husband and his family members (if it is a Child also) are arrested without any
investigation. when a wife or her relative claiming that the husband or his relative
treated her cruelty, the accused shall be punished with imprisonment of three
years and also liable to fine. The offense is cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.
Actually
this law is made for a safeguard for Indian woman to protect them from the
physical and mental harassment from the husband and his relatives. In some
regions the situation of women is worst. We know that the marriage is an act of
union of two families. But during marriage husband’s family sometimes asking a
huge amount as dowry, sometimes household equipment and golds etc. when wife’s
family has failed to fulfil the demands of husband’s family it will leads to
the mental and physical torture to the women’s family. These tortures may lead
to the suicides and mysterious death of the women also. To protecting women
from these merciless acts the IPC established the law of Section 498A, 1983 of
IPC (This is the amended version of 1853).
Cruelty means the following are covered under
this section
·
Cruelty
by Vexation litigation
·
Cruelty
by Deprivation
·
Cruelty
by Persistent Demand
·
Cruelty
by extra marital affairs
·
Harassment
for non-dowry demand
·
Cruelty
by non-acceptance of baby girl
·
Cruelty
by false attacks on chastity
·
Taking
away children
But
now a days this law is misusing in a large scale
Suppose
a woman married a guy due to the pressure from her parents, she can never admit
her husband and his family circumstances. Sometimes ego clashes can happen. May
be woman want a divorce from her husband but the husband is not willing for the
divorce, hen woman can allege her husband that she have persistently tortured
by her husband and family. Then her complaint will came under section 498A. The
police can arrest the accused husband and his family members (even if the
family member is 3 year old child). Sometimes the members don’t have a narrow
relation to the accused person. But police can arrest them if woman alleged
crime against them. A proper investigation never happened when the case alleged
under 498A. A Number of misuse has reporting nowadays. The accused family
members also got arrested and it is affecting the school student of the
accused.
Unfortunately
our judicial processes are too many slow and it will takes a time of around 10
to 15 days to get the trial to complete. Most of the cases under the 498A is
result less. Around two percentage of cases are true, remaining allegations are
false, which has used as a weapon against the accused.
An
Amendment on this law is necessary to overcome the misuse of the law .may be
the following measures can end the misuse of the law.
·
Make Bailable: The main reason for the misuse of
this law is due to its non- bailable nature. If it should be changed to
bailable it prevents the innocent old parents, pregnant sisters and school
going children from custody for weeks without any fault of time.
·
Make Compoundable: Once the FIR has registered there is
no option for withdraw the cases, it is impossible even if wife realizes that
she has done a blunter and want to come back to the matrimonial home. By making
this law as compoundable these type of situations can avoided and couple get a
chance to a mutual divorce also.
·
Arrest Warrant: Arrest warrant should be issued only
against the main accused. Husband’s family members should not arrested.
·
Penalty for making false accusation: In Present condition there is no option
for taking any action against the women when the court comes to the conclusion
that the allegation made by the women under the Section 498A is unfound. The
person who made false allegation should be punished or fined. This will
discourage the persons to make false allegation.
·
Punish the dowry givers
·
Penalize the Corrupt Investigation
officers:
If the court comes to a conclusion that the officers has not made a fair
investigation and the husband’s family members charge sheeted without proper
verification of the complaint. The officer should be penalized for the gross
negligence of duty.
Indian
constitution offering Right to equality for the Citizen irrespective of their
gender but in this type of cases where is the right to Equality..?
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