India court says women 'misusing' dowry law - BBC News http://www.bbc.

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India court says women 'misusing'

dowry law
3 July 2014 India Share

More than 8,000 women are killed every year in India in dowry-related offences

India's Supreme Court has said that women are increasingly

misusing the tough anti-dowry law to harass their husbands and
in-laws.

The judges said the law was enacted to help women, but it was being
used as "a weapon by disgruntled wives".

The court has now ordered the police to follow a nine-point checklist
before arresting anyone on a dowry complaint.

Correspondents say dowry offences are a serious issue in India

where more than 8,000 women are killed every year.

Paying and accepting dowry is a centuries-old South Asian tradition

where the bride's parents gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the
groom's family.

The practice has been illegal in India since 1961, but it continues to
thrive and campaigners say it leaves women vulnerable to domestic
violence and even death.

'Used as weapon'

To prevent dowry deaths and harassment of brides in their

matrimonial homes, India introduced a tough anti-dowry law - Section
498A of the Indian Penal Code - in 1983.

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A complaint under the law allows for immediate arrest and jailing of
the accused, often the husband and his family members, but
campaigners say the provision is frequently misused with many
women filing false cases.

"The fact that Section 498A is a cognisable and non-bailable offence

has lent it a dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are
used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives," the
two-judge bench of Justices CK Prasad and PC Ghose said in its
order on Wednesday.

"The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives
arrested under this provision. In a quite number of cases, bed-ridden
grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands, their sisters living
abroad for decades are arrested," it added.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics, nearly

200,000 people, including 47,951 women, were arrested over dowry
offences in 2012, but only 15% of the accused were convicted, the
court said.

Expressing concern over the misuse of the law, the judges ordered
the police "not to automatically arrest" an accused, but to go through
a "nine-point checklist" to "satisfy themselves about the necessity for
arrest".

And if the police make an arrest, a magistrate must approve further

detention of the accused, the court ruled.

Related Topics

Women's rights

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