Softwares are manmade and hence they are prone to bugs. They are debugged and launched with a better version. Similarly Laws too are manmade and they also need to be improved for effective jurisprudence. Else its misuse will spread like swine-flu epidemic affecting all strata of societies. 498a is one such highly abused infamous law leading Government to think of amendments.
Why courts ordered Landmark 498a Judgements in favor of husbands? Without CrPC 41a, the non compoundable, non-bailable and Cognizable offence 498a caused immediate arrests of husbands and inlaws on a simple complain of wife, it became an effective tool to negotiate Huge alimony amounts from husband. If threat did not work then actually 498a was successfully misused to arrest and extract money with no accountability on wife. However while wife extracted huge alimony on one hand in family court, later Husband and his family were acquitted in criminal court under 498a due to lack of relevance and substance in the dowry charges. Also the wife in most cases did not feel motivated to turn up for hearings after arrests, as her objective of arresting and or getting hefty alimony was met. Thus national time, money and machinery of sarkari vakil provided to her were wasted.
RTI, NCRB data and reports from CSR and Malimath Committee when analyzed found 2% conviction rate in 498a. This was because of simple math. For Ratio, Genuine convictions when placed in numerator upon total numbers of 498a cases in denominator, the output was 2% as majority of domestic dispute cases were filed to arrest later leading to acquittal. This alarmingly justifies amendments. SC observed that 498a cannot become assassin’s weapon instead of shield and termed it as Legal Terrorism.
498a misuse is threatened on husband but not filed by Separated / Divorcing wives to extract more alimony and also even while staying under the same roof with marriage intact to fulfill demands. There is NO machinery to register an FIR against wife hence many undocumented cases of Husband with family members who have compromised to avoid mass arrests go unrecorded as this data remains unborn.
Yes 498a is heavily misused hence Domestic Violence Act was introduced. Since unqualified charges under majority of 498a cases resulted into acquittal of husband and inlaws after the ignominy of arrests, some experts justified the need of an alternate civil law but ignored amending loop holes of 498a criminal law. Womens activists took this opportunity to introduce Domestic violence Act.
Unfortunately, DV act is incomplete and open to misuse as it is drafted only for wives, ruling out abuse by wife on Men and his relatives. The idea of having a DV act was welcome but its incompleteness and drafting was heavily criticized by courts, Delhi HC termed it as most loosely drafted law. Now system has 498a and DV, both imperfect and prone to misuse.
Mother and Sister of Husband are not protected under women’s protection act from Daughter-in-Law. A DIL cannot be a respondent in DV/498a but can accuse Husband’s Mother and Sister in DV and Arrest in 498a. DIL committing child abuse by alienating child from father has no punishment.
Vulnerable Men: Financial abuse on Men leads to emotional and health abuse under domestic relationship. While nagging of wife is taken lightly but actually it is verbal abuse on husband. Stress caused by extreme direct/ indirect financial demands by wife are major hidden factors that cause diabetes, blood pressure, heart attack and suicides in men. The reasons for suicide in men including farmers are often justified as Work stress and debts, but the root cause of over ambitious family demands and spousal abuse is overlooked. Hence Ministry and National Commission for Men seem inevitable.
No Suo Motu for Men: Every 18 minutes a wife commits suicide in India, a suomotu investigation of Dowry death by police is compulsory if death is within 7 years of marriage. But there is no suo motu punishment for a wife lying on oath in 498a-406. Every 9 minutes a husband commits suicide but there is no law to protect him, also suicide notes holding wife responsible have been taken leniently. Under DP Act giving dowry is crime but only husband is framed.
Proposed deterrents ineffective: If non bailable 498a is made compoundable, then wives will find it very easy to file 498a to extract alimony and later withdraw it once desired extortion amount is received. Other option proposed is a penalty of Rs.15000 for misuse, but here Rs.15000 will work as a one-time ransom (supari) to settle scores with husband. Unless there is an equal reverse punishment to the misuser, deterrents will be ineffective.
Other heavily misused laws on husband are 406 (Stridhan), Crpc125 (alimony), DV and offlate there is a sudden rise in cases of IPC 377 (unnatural sex) which are yet to catch the attention of the Government. There is a Long way to go for men in achieving a real Gender equality in the books of law. But with growing numbers of male victims, Government will have to blink someday.
(Charts: SaveFamilyFoundation, Standupforacause.wordpress.com, Data: NCRB)
(The writer is Blogger, Senior Activist with SaveIndianFamily Movement.)
