Urgent need of Amendment in 498 A

IPC 498 A was enacted in 1983 to combat domestic violence prevailing in the society with the presumption that only aggrieved victim would use this section. On the contrary, right from inception, it is largely being used by unscrupulous wife/daughter-in-law for ulterior motive viz. extortion, blackmailing, harassment and settling personal vendetta. The section being non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizant, generally leads to the arrest of accused mentioned in the FIR before any investigation. The impending arrest, the burden of proof on the accused to prove his innocence and lingering of the case to extended period of time of 4-5 years lead to ignominy and harassment which are often difficult to wipe out even on proving oneself innocent. Even a recent study on its misuse, by a women based organization (CSR), puts the misuse in the range 6-10 % which clearly indicates the problem is much severe than it is perceived to be. The following court judgments & recommendation only reiterates the fact:

1. Supreme Court has termed its misuse as unleashing of legal terrorism and have directed the legislature to taken corrective action. Supreme Court Judgement WP 141 of 2005 .
2.  Delhi HC judge Justice J.D. Kapoor has called for avoidance of arrest of the accused unless utmost necessary Just.J D Kapoor Judgement CrlM 3875/2003  
3. High Court of Karnataka’s judgment, Crl.A. no. 589 of 2003, made on 4-9-2003 (case of M.F.Saldhana & M.S. Rajendra Prasad JJ), the Judge stated that in about 45% cases prosecution is thoroughly unjustified. 
4. Recommendation of Malimath Committee to make the law bailable and compoundable. http://www.saveindianfamily.com/pages/courageofmalimath.html

In the light of above facts, this section is in an urgent need of amendment for the following reasons:

1. Legal Terrorism: The section is largely being used by wives and her parents to extort money out of improvident marriages. Most of the cases end up in out of court settlements, instead of going through the entire process of trial. It has been wrongly highlighted by women organizations that the out of court settlement is reached due to some undue pressure on actual victims. In reality, she ends up getting a huge sum of money, which was the basic motive of filing false case. No law should be used as an assassin’s weapon instead of being used as a shield for protection. 
2. Erosion of Intellectual Capital: Typically, a victim is an engineer or an MBA from reputed institution, an IT professional, an NRI or a doctor etc. i.e. a successful professional, who is economically quite well off. They are career oriented, simple people who have never been to a police station or a criminal court for wrong reasons. Criminal proceedings against them is a profound experience from shock, trauma to frustration. The prime of their career is spent in trials and court visits to prove themselves & their parents innocent. Their career is not only affected, but in many cases they end up losing their job, after all some companies take strict cognizance of criminal proceedings while the govt. employees are worst hit, as any arrest involving some minimum period result in the suspension of the falsely accused victim. Indian government, that boasts of rich intellectual capital and gives huge premium to skilled human resource, cannot afford its intellectual capital to be drained in its inefficient & biased legal system. 
3. Destroying the institution of marriage: Invariably, all false criminal cases end up in irreconcilable separation. Once the victim and his parents have been falsely involved in criminal case, reconciliation becomes out of question. Who would like to lead his life with a person, who has tried or has put her husband/in-laws in jail and has tried to or started criminal proceedings that might imprison the husband/in – laws for several years. 
4. Credibility loss of women:  Women are gradually losing their credibility because of filing of false 498 A cases. As the section says, the accused is guilty until proven innocent, women are gradually now being presumed to be unscrupulous unless proven otherwise. 
5. Genuine victims ignored: The gross misuse has led the system to address all such cases, prima facie, as false cases. This has resulted in actual victims being ignored and unattended. 

These are only some of the key reasons that call for an amendment in the act. This is highly gender biased law while men are equally, if not more, victims of domestic violence. It’s the duty of the law to provide protection to both the genders, sadly, the government has badly failed in creation of just and civil society. If this was not enough, it has released another satan, DV Bill.

Are we heading for a doomsday?

11:06 AM - Monday, November 21, 2005 - post comment