SECTION 498A - A MISUSING LAW OF INDIAN PENAL CODE (IPC)




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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