Dowry law misfires: Don’t arrest first and then proceed with the case ( Copy Right @ The Times of India blog, Author- Swagato Ganguly)
Well meaning laws, if badly framed, can become a tool for extortion. The Supreme Court has done well to build safeguards around Section 498-A, a provision of the law meant to target those guilty of dowry harassment – essentially to keep alive the basic principle of Indian jurisprudence that one is innocent until proven guilty.
That principle is inverted by 498-A which makes dowry crime a cognizable and non-bailable offence. This has been interpreted to mean that anyone accused should be arrested the moment a complaint is registered. Given the ubiquity of marital quarrels and massive corruption among police forces everywhere in India, the extent of misuse of this provision – for the sake of extortion or plain settling of scores — can easily be imagined.
Neither should the issue be seen in a men vs women light. Because female relatives of a husband are equally liable to arrest in case of complaints against them. One is under threat not just if one is a married man but also if one is related to a married man – a category that would include most of us, whether man or woman.
The Supreme Court cited 2012 court statistics that showed nearly a quarter of those arrested under Section 498-A that year were women. As it observed, “In quite a number of cases, bed-ridden grand-fathers and grand-mothers of the husbands, their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested”. This can scar people and goes against basic canons of justice.
The apex court has now advised against arrest based on mere allegations, saying that a police officer must first arrive at a reasonable degree of satisfaction about the genuineness of the allegation and provide proof to a magistrate, who must also record the reasons for the arrest. This is as it should be.
It has been argued that dowry crimes are a scar on society’s conscience and therefore, in such cases, we should suspend the principle of innocence until proven guilty. But murder too is a heinous crime, we don’t suspend the basic principle of Indian jurisprudence even (or especially) for such cases.
In fact, the law works best if it’s kept simple rather than terrifyingly complex and Kafkaesque. In that context, why do we need anti-dowry laws at all? If the law is serious about tackling anti-dowry offences then it can treat dowry deaths as murders, against which there are tough provisions in the Indian penal code. Similarly with every other category of dowry misdemeanour, whether physical violence, threats or criminal intimidation against the bride.
And if the law isn’t serious about prosecuting such offences, then no amount of tweaking the law will help.
Blog by Swagato ganguly
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