Law on dowry

Venkatadri (Querist) 29 March 2013 This query is : Resolved

Good evening Sir,
In charge sheet according to LW – 1’s statement and her father’s statement it has mentioned that LW – 1’s father had given 3lakhs cash when LW – 1’s husband demanded as additional dowry.Then sir I heard that giving dowry also a crime then in my case even LW – 1’s father also should be punished or not. Sir, please give information on this.

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ajay sethi (Expert) 29 March 2013
yes giving dowry and aceepting dowry is both a crime

ajay sethi (Expert) 29 March 2013
observing that the anti-dowry law has been reduced to a “paper tiger”, a Delhi court says the bride and her family too must be prosecuted to eliminate the social evil

Indian laws prohibiting dowry not only forbid receipt but also giving it. Dowry is a two-way street: unless there is a giver there can be no taker. That’s why, in order to eliminate this social evil, both giver and taker are liable under Section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

“It is not possible to leave one and book another,” a woman judge of the Delhi city court said recently, and, in a significant observation, held that the bride’s family was to be blamed for rendering the social welfare legislation largely ineffective.

The court made the observation while dismissing the plea of a woman seeking to quash criminal proceedings initiated against her family for giving dowry, following a complaint by her husband who was facing dowry harassment charges. The woman challenged the order of a metropolitan magistrate in October last year who directed the registration of an FIR against members of her family for giving dowry at her marriage in April 2008.

“It is unfortunate that the legislation (Dowry Prohibition Act) has been reduced to a mere paper tiger. What is more unfortunate is that the family of the woman (involved in the marriage) is responsible for the non-accomplishment of this legislation,” Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau noted.

“It is time this social welfare legislation is ruthlessly implemented and none is permitted to take the shield of social compulsion. This has become all the more necessary in order to check the misuse and abuse of special laws,” she added.

The court also said expensive gifts given by relatives to the couple before and after marriage must be brought to the notice of the authorities for the levying of taxes.

Source: The Indian Express, June 28, 2010
Press Trust of India, June 28, 2010

Sankaranarayanan (Expert) 29 March 2013
Mr sethi given hiss valuable time for answer this query. I endorse him

Devajyoti Barman (Expert) 29 March 2013
If the complainant accepted the receipt of dowry then it is a crime for which case u/s 3 and 4 of D.P. Act can be initiated.

prabhakar singh (Expert) 29 March 2013
You rightly heard that giving dowry is also a crime.The admission in any complaint of having given dowry must be treated as CONFESSION before magistrate and attracts sentence even without trial.