Fight against Injustice - Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section - 498a

Guys,

This person named Zinesh has written a very relevant article about hindu marriage, unruly and disrespecting woman in hindu marriage(s). Please read on ....

http://indianhusbands.blogspot.com/2005/09/but-how-hindu-was-that-marriage.html

Please visit the link and post your comments...



- Satya

Hi Protima,

I just cannot believe you can write this long mail on just one premise.Your premise is: the woman who filed the case has filed because she was harassed by in-laws for dowry. (I am dead against dowry. I did not take dowry in my marriage). If I would have, I would not have guts to campaign against this law. It is important to eradicate the social victim of dowry. But to do that by making absurd laws is not going to help men or women.

All this uproar and voice is against the false use of 498a. You and Jayna are just trying to protect those vicious ladies who are misusing the law. Need for a law (as you say) does not mean make a law with loopholes and do not do anything about it's rampant misuse.

"Criminal cruelty laws under sec. 323 to 326 IPC and
sec. 352 IPC can be used by both men and women."

If there are criminal cruelty laws, then why make new 498a. Why make Domestic Violence law? How many men and women you have seen who use the above mentioned IPCs? Any why have you not seen a news articles and mails about their misuse?

"I am a bit weary of people saying that women are
perpetuating a false picture! I am not sure why you
think women can get away by giving incorrect
information."

Women organizations have done it again and again. They have perpetuated wrong information around the world. They have portrayed a picture of men all over the world torturing them. It does not do any good to foul cry and try to prove that other half is dominating you. Read "who stole feminism" to get a good picture of the harm women organizations have done. It is written by a woman.
Those in-laws and husbands who harass their wife for dowry or gifts should rot in hell, they do not deserve and lesser punishment. But what about those whose life is govern by unruly daughter-in-law. Read about borderline personality disorder (which is mostly localized to women). A woman with that disorder can make everyone's life a living hell. Are you trying to say, that you have not seen lots of women in your life who are like vamp in house? Do you think they will do justice with 498a? Do you think man are not nagged by their wives, harrassed and beaten up by their wives? Then why can'nt they file 498a. Also, for you information, read 498a again, it is not 'specific' to dowry now, it was amended and it is generic..... means 'harassment/torture' on wife by husband and in-laws.

Let me ask you do try the following first hand and let me know your experience:

Go to police station and file a complaint against your husband and relatives (even those relatives who do not live or ever lived with you) and see the result. Police will file it and you would not need any proof....

Satya

Hi Jayna,


I have compiled the list of 'truths about 498a'. You are welcome to send it to your friends and families.

http://stannoxane.blogspot.com/2005/09/truth-about-ipc-498a.html

1) I wish you could use your judgement to understand if that laws like 498a and DV need ammendments, there are a plenty of people who mis-use it. With every 498a (filed by wife or her relative) there are other women (mother-in-law, sister-in-law) who go through hell. So 498a is not for protection of women, it is for the protection of wife (WIFE ONLY!!!). Why is that no other country in the world have such gender-biased, wife-biased law? If you are giving me the statistics w.r.t. the convictions and judgements, then respect the statistics and confess that the misuse of the law is rampant. The judicial results speak for themselves.

2) If you want us to believe that the woman organization statistics is more reliable than court results, than we differ in opinions. What makes you believe so much on woman organization and their work. Please give me name of one independent social research on 498a conducted by an organization which is not headed by woman?

3) If you are trying to say woman do not have problem of aggresion and that 498a is used as a last resort by them to escape physical and mental torture, then you ought to have open mind and do some more readings by psychologist on the net.

4) You forgot to add that Center for Social research headed by a woman (who confesses to being a feminist) reported in August'2005 that only 6.5% of the cases of 498a are false, where are High court and Supreme court judges who deal with this social epidemic on a regular basis have said that the percentage is somewhere around 70-80%.




Jayna Kothari wrote:

Dear all,

Let me try and respond to some of the issues that have
been raised in the Section 498A discussion to the best
that I can:

1. First of all, all laws may be generally open to
misuse. Is there anything extraordinary about the
misuse of Section 498A? I do not think so, and I am
only relying on factual data and empirical studies to
support my claim.
A study of court decisions in the state of Maharashtra
carried out by the Women's Studies Unit of the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences in 1996 showed that only
2.2 % of cases brought under section 498A during
1990-96 resulted in conviction. Another study done by
Vimochana in Bangalore during the years 1998-1999 on
cases relating to dowry death and domestic violence
based on the Karnataka State Crime Records data shows
that only 22 cases of Section 304B (dowry death) and
498A were disposed of in 1998. Out of these, none
resulted in conviction - 4 were acquitted and 18 were
disposed by other methods. In 1999 too, there were no
convictions - only 2 acquittals and 19 "other
disposals". The latter category of ‘other disposals’ is
an euphemism for "compromise cases", that is cases in
which victims' families are induced or threatened into
letting the police drop proceedings against the accused
- a totally unacceptable procedure since criminal cases
are not compoundable like civil actions. These facts
show that in majority of the cases, even the entire
trial is not completed and the complainants are forced
to drop the proceedings. Therefore the argument which
some of you might make that the abnormally low
conviction rate proves the falsity of the cases cannot
be sustained.
Another significant study done by the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences on Section 498A complaints in 1999
received in four police stations in Mumbai revealed
that 40% of these complaints were filed by their family
members, after the women were dead. This shows that in
almost half of the cases of domestic violence, the
women’s family only approaches the police after she is
dead.
These studies are available with TISS and Vimochana and
if anyone is interested I am sure they would be very
happy to supply copies.


2. Secondly, have there been any studies to show use
and misuse of any other laws, for eg. theft or murder?
Do we know how many convictions have taken place for
other offences, as compared to the number of cases
registered? I dont think there is any State sponsored
study to determine what amoutns to misuse. Therefore, I
would say that we should not loosely make claims of
'misuse' of Section 498A without keeping all these
factors in mind.

3. Thirdly, there is no bar to the State enacting
pro-women laws. In fact the constitution mandates the
State to make special provisions for women and children
in order to protect their rights. Therefore, I do not
think that the argument that there should not be any
pro-women laws can be sustained.

4. lastly, someone on the list complained of there
being too many women's groups and not enough children's
groups and men's rights groups! You may not be aware,
but there are hundreds of child rights groups all over
the country. And as regards groups to protect men's
rights - you are free to start your own group to
protect your rights if you believe they have been
violated. India is a democracy which allows people to
associate freely, so maybe some of the men on this list
who believe that Section 498A is being used falsely
against them must start their own group, and I wish
them all the best!

regards,
Jayna

# posted by Satya @ 2:18 PM 8 comments

What 498a is:

1) Gender Biased law: Only women or her relative(s) can invoke it.
2) Wife specific : Only married women's relatives can invoke it.
3) No proof required: Can be invoked by wife whenever she wants, without any proof of any sort.
4) Non-bailable: All those named in the FIR (first Information report) have to be arrested without police bail. These people may not be living within the same household as wife (distant relatives can be implicated too).
5) Non-compundable: Once wife invokes it, she cannot take it back.
6) Criminal law: It is not a civil law, it comes under criminal code.
7) This law exists only in India: No where in the world you can find this kind of ridiculous law.
8) Extortion racket: Most implicated people/family are from middle to high class
9) No punishment for filing false 498a: even if it is proved that wife misused the law, she and her family members go spotfree.
10) Causing corruption and misuse of police power: Police harrasses family members implicated in 498a.
11) Simple search on internet will show that it is getting misused heavily by modern women in India and rural women (for whom this law was made) are more or less in the same situation as they were when the law was introduced.

498a is not:

1) does not Save marriage: We do not have a single incident when wife reconciled with husband after 498a.
2) not helping wife also: We do not hear of what happens to woman who had put 498a. Why don't women organization publish statistics about post-498a state of women.
3) not about gender equality: It is about improper law to help wife dictate the rules in a family. With every FIR, another woman (mother-in-law) is also implicated.

Guys,

Look at what is happening in the world. No trust for outsiders, and now, no trust within family...... not even between husband and wife.

Consider a simple accident on the road in India. A man driving a car, suddenly from now where a bicycle crosses the street in front of him, the driver slams on the brake, tries to save the poor man on the cycle, but eventually hits him. Who is at fault?

Guy who is driving the car, or the one on the cycle??? You might be thinking... obviously the man on bicycle............. NO......... public outrages at the scene of incident and beats up the car driver. Why? Because he is the strong person (bigger vehicle, he must be at fault, no matter what. Similar situation you can expect between an accident of truck and a car. Truckwala is 'considered' culprit.

The same goes for man and woman. There is an argument between the two. May be a little brawl, but who is considered at fault? Man..........

Psycholofy at work. The weaker person is mostly considered 'taken advantage of'. They are the one to be 'saved' from claws of the 'stronger' one.

Now about 498a.... (to save the so called helpless woman)...

1) 498a can happen in love marriages (case of d'Souza, swarup)
2) 498a can very well happen in arranged marriage (thousands of
cases reported everyday, and some to this organization).

Woman can unleash her hell, inside or outside India, in love or
arranged marriage at her whim. Make them happy or face the
consequences.

Feminists are really spoiling the world for human society (not only
for man). But they are really deceiving women and making man more
and more cautious and 'skeptic'. Now married/unmarried man cannot
trust his wife (for once she may be deciving her for her untoward
plans).....

Future looks so bleak.....

-Satya