Punishment under section 498a should be less than 6 month?

i just dont understand how  so called mental harrassment becomes as henious as murder or rape to get a reward of 10 yr in jail?  in this case better not marry at all.

our friend shonee must live in the middle age where  big punishment was offered for little offences.

in the west, all marriage related problem end in divorce. marriage related offences are civil there. this makes sense. isn't it?

Arnab Banerjee,

I am a man from this age only.

This act is so draconian. And when no sane argument is reaching the minds that decide, one has to go to extremes.

My take on women reservation bill is following:

"If you argue that 33% reservation for women in parliament for 15 years (So that every constituency gets one woman MP in these 15years) would make out country progress fast, then let us make it like this. One parliament for 5 years fully reserved for women. We want to progress fast."

Satire is greatest form of art, my friend.

Dear sirs,

Nothing can be said about a man who is uncultured, they are not afraid of 498a or more than that. they are born as a man but they are not human beings. "As you sow so shall you reap" .You can handle worldly affairs carefully but not a girl who has left everything for your sake for whole life.

There are two components in S.498A.  One is physical harrassment and other is mental harrassment.  Mental harrassment cannot be measured by police whereas on the other side for physical harrassment the girl can show some proof, medical report or some injury on her body etc.  Of course a girl can be beaten in such a way that there is no injury on her body.  That also constitute physical harrassment.  But it is better if a girl comes to police station to file a complaint saying I am mentally harrassed or does not show the proof of any injury on her body (though admits she was beaten), such complaints shall be made bailable.

Non-bailable complaints should be those involving injuries to body which the girl shows or which are based on medical report.  But even in those cases, if the girl does not react immediately to complain to police, such complaints should be made bailable. 

Complaint to police is made without an after-thought, under a situation of compelling circumstances where girl feels irresistible impulse to bring the matter to light come what may.  Even if a medical report is available to show injuries, if a girl comes after a month or two or after a year, it should be treated only as a bailable offense in view of the fact that the girl did not react immediately to bring it to the notice of police with a complaint.

Men should also be made eligible to petition for mental harassment by women and the treatment should be alike. Dowry or no dowry any physical harassment should be dealt with severely, again with no regard for the gender.  Relatives (father, mother, sister, brother etc) should be excluded from the initial phases and can be implicated only if proven later that they were partners in the crime.  More than the men, it appears the relatives seem to be suffering a lot. No doubt they could be partners in the crime.  However the husband is supposed to be solely responsible for his family and hence the relatives should be secondary until proven to the extent.

Rule should be Husband or his family members take dowry should be hanged till death.

And for girl or her family life time imprisonment for false cases.

If that rule become a law girl family will think many times before FIR/filing the case as they won't get a single penny from dead people.

Ad u said "i think that the punishment for any marriage related offence must be divorce only: no jail, no fine. it is 21st century and we must  understand the fact that mental offence is not as henious as murder ."

Why a mental torture is no offence .... mental torture reduce communication and increases communication gaps , it also increases suicidal tendencies , and may be very harmfull can lead to murders even.

I dont think that a punishment for bad marriage is divorce......what about those people who have be played , invested money , time and life may be evn heart and soul???????????

and if the are cheated for money , tortured mentally or physically should be punished....and i dont think that all 498 a cases are false.....what i beleive here is if a guy is wrong 1-8 out of 1-10 then it dosent matters if u punish him for 1-10....coz there are laws for dv , dowry but what about point 2 or point 5 or 6.........that is also a tortute but one dosent have a law for that......whether or not they deserve jail for 7 years.......

But yes if it gets proved that the girl has put false allegations in order to retrive money then definately she should go to jail for 3 years.

A person spends significant number of hours at workplace.  What is the punishment for mental harassment at workplace ?

Mental or physical assault need to be treated keeping only the merits in mind.  Marriage, workplace or neighbourhood should be considered as a parameter, but not the sole criterion to decide the relief given to the aggrieved.  This will eliminate gender bias as well.   Also we will be able to reduce the number of IPC sections and laws thus simplifying and strengthening the law.

The problem with the mental assault/harassment is that it can only be defined based on the circumstances, but it can not be measured or easily proved.  This needs very careful guidelines to the law makers and law enforcers to determine the extent of mental harassment.

Once assault is dealt with in a separate ambit, the marriage acts should only deal with basic elements viz  the marriage, separation and child custody.