NEW DELHI: The Dowry Act in its present form is here to stay for now. The government on Friday said it had dropped amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 proposed by the National Commission for Women (NCW).
“The NCW had recommended certain amendments in Dowry Prohibition Act. However, the ministry has taken a considered view on the matter and decided to drop the amendment proposed by NCW in the present form after taking into account the comments of the high level committee on the status of women and the ministry of home affairs,” women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi said in Lok Sabha.
The move has been met with some relief by women’s rights activists who feared weakening of the law following a critical Supreme Court order. “I feel it is good that the government has decided not to dilute the law,” Ranjana Kumari from the Centre for Social Research said.
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Among the amendments that were planned included widening the definition of the word dowry and including penalty provisions for misuse of the act. In a recent order, the Supreme Court had said Section 498A had “dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives”.
On November 23, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled if a woman’s complaint accusing her husband and in-laws of cruelty under the dreaded Section 498A of Indian Penal Code turns out to be false, then the man is entitled to divorce.
The bench quoted “Crime in India 2012 Statistics” published by National Crime Records Bureau to say that nearly 2 lakh people were arrested in India in 2012 under Section 498A, which was 9.4% more than in 2011.
Among the other amendments that were proposed were a provision for separate penalties for giving and taking of dowry and penalties for non-maintenance of lists of gifts received at the time of marriage.
There are reports of misuse of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code by women to harass their husband and in-laws. (TOI illustration)
There has been significant increase in the number of dowry-related cases in the last decade including Dowry Prohibition Act cases (300% increase), 498A cases (135% increase) and a 30% increase in the number of dowry deaths. All of these three rates are substantially higher than the rate of increase of all cognizable cases on average, which was 21%.
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Dowry-related cases accounted for nearly half of the increase in crimes against women between 2003 and 2013.
TOI | Dec 13, 2014
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