https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Centre-moots-making-dowry-harassment-bailable-offence/articleshow/7558587.cms
The union law ministry has launched an exercise to tone down the provisions of Indian Penal Code dealing with matrimonial cruelty including cases of dowry harassment. If the changes are implemented, dowry harassment may soon become a bailable offence.
The changes are aimed at protecting family life and checking the alleged misuse of the law. Accordingly, Section 498-A of the IPC, which defines matrimonial cruelty, will be amended.
Section 498-A was inserted into IPC by an amendment in 1983. Under the section, offenders including husband or any other family members are liable for imprisonment as well as a fine. The offence is non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizable on a complaint made to the police officer by the victim (wife) or by designated relatives.
If changes are made, offences including dowry harassment will become bailable and compoundable.
"Relevant data and opinion are being sought from states to evaluate the misuse of the law and possibilities of changing it," said Justice Shiv Kumar Sharma, member of Law Commission of India.
The commission will hold meetings with police of different states to collect statistics regarding misuse of the penal code and also about genuine cases of dowry harrasment and other forms of matrimonial cruelty.
Sharma is currently in Jaipur to hold first such meeting with the top brass of Rajasthan police.
"After the arrest of husband, possibility of reconciliation becomes difficult. So the aim is to strike a balance," Sharma told TOI on Wednesday. However, he said the commission was equally concerned about genuine cases of cruelty and data regarding the same was also being collected. "The focus is to see that a family is not ruined for trivial reasons," he said. The commission intends to make recommendations on the basis of statistical data so that the exercise reaches a logical end, he said.
Last Friday, the Law Commission held a meeting in New Delhi, also attended by law and justice minister Verappa Moily, to discuss improvement of justice delivery system, review of Section 498-A of the IPC and expanding the ambit of compoundable offences under IPC.
The department has initiated the exercise in the wake of two recent Supreme Court orders. On July 30, 2010, a bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice TS Thakur in Ram Gopal vs State of MP (SPL crime no 6494/2010) case had observed, "There are several offences under the IPC that are currently non-compoundable. These include offences punishable under Section 498-A of the IPC. We are of the opinion that the Law Commission of India could examine whether a suitable proposal could be sent to the union government in this regard." The court had observed, "Any such step would not only relieve the courts of the burden of deciding cases in which the aggrieved parties have themselves arrived at a settlement but may also encourage the process of reconciliation."
On August 13 last year, a bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice K S Radhakrishnan in Preeti Gupta vs State of Jharkhand case had also made a similar observation to ensure that family life is not disturbed and at the same time dowry harassment victims get justice.
