Dowry Cases in India 2024: Pointing to a ‘rising trend of misuse of section of the law relating to protecting women from cruelty by her in-laws,’ the Supreme court said it is necessary for the courts to exercise a large measure of circumspection while dealing in dowry harassment cases so as not to put genuine non-offenders to harassment.
Amid Atul Subhash Suicide Case is a Dowry Case
Amid Atul Subhash Suicide Case: The Supreme Court’s remarks came as it set aside a Telangana High Court order that had refused to strike down a dowry harassment case against a man and his relatives
The remarks are made at a time when there is quite a discourse in the country all thanks to the dowry prohibition Act especially following the death of a 34 years old man through suicide in Bengaluru. In the video before taking his own life, Atul Subhash claimed that his estranged wife Nikita Singhania and her family slapped multiple cases on him and his family in order to milk them. In his 24-pages suicide note, Atul Subhash has also taken a dig at the inefficient justice system.
Amid Atul Subhash Suicide Case & Dowry Cases in India 2024
The Supreme Court’s harsh words came out while it quashed the telangana high court order that had dismissed the petition to quash a dowry harassment case filed against a man, his parents and other family members. A plain reading of the FIR reveals that the allegations made by the wife were vague and omnibus, said the court. It also said that some of the accused were indifferent to the matter and “have been caught in the web of crime without any excuse”.
The supreme court said that a simple mention of the name of family members in a criminal case along with a marital dispute without substantiation each of them being involved must be stopped immediately. “This has been a matter of common knowledge and perhaps based on judicial knowledge that any time there are disputes arising out of a matrimonial dispute then all the members of the husband’s family are likely to be dragged to court,” it said.
Pointing out that such broad allegations without any substantiation cannot officiate for a prosecution, the bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said in the forgoing order observing, “Whenever such matters come to the court, courts must exercise reasonable degree of circumspection to avoid misuse of legal provisions and legal process and to ensure that innocent family members of the accused are not unnecessarily put to harassment.
Dowry Case Laws & Dowry Case Rules in India
Dowry Case Laws & Rules: The Supreme court said that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code under which trespass and cruelty to a woman by the husband or other relatives of the husband was added in a law so that there is intervention by the State in a very short time. ipc has been substituted by Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Section 80 relates to dowry death and Section 85 to cruelty to a woman by the husband or other relatives.
The court pointed out that over the past few years the number of matrimonial disputes has increased dramatically across the country, and the discord and tension within the legal system of marriage have also increased. “…there has been, therefore, an increasing tendency to misuse sections such as 498A of the IPC as a tool for private vengeance against the husband and his family by the wife.
When such allegations are made during matrimonial conflicts without having to be shielded or reviewed, it means that the legal processes will be abused and the wife as well as her kindred will prefer using arm twisting methods. Arguably the Form is used sometimes to bring Section 498A of the IPC against the husband and his family to compel them to obey the unreasonable demands of a wife,” the order.
The court added that it did not mean its holding as that any woman who has undergone through the ordeal of cruelty should remain silent. It does not lie in the intention of our said observations but for not to encourage a case like as in the present one, as a counter blast to the petition for dissolution of marriage sought by the first appellant-husband of the second respondent herein, a complaint under Section 498A of the IPC is lodged by her.
For this reason, the said provision is mainly inserted to afford protection to a woman who is exposed to cruelty in the matrimonial home mainly arising from unlawful demands for any property or valuable security in the form of dowry. But it is misused sometimes as has been seen in the present case,” it said.
Amid Atul Subhash Suicide Case ( Misuse of a Dowry Case)
In the video, which he recorded before his death, Atul Subhash said he got married in 2019 by finding Nikita Singhania in a matrimonial portal. The couple was blessed with a son the following year. He has alleged that his wife’s family would often come for money several times running into several lakhs. When he failed to provide more money, his wife moved to another house in Bengaluru with their son in February this year.
The next year Atul noted in the notebook and, the same year Nikita registered a case against him and his family under sections relating to murder and unnatural sex. She accused him of demanding dowry of ₹10 lakh which in turn took toll on her father and he died of heart attack.
This is some poor bollywood plot. Taliba has already given a statement in the cross examination that her father was having long term illness. He said, “ Her father was treated for heart disease, diabetes from AIIMS for the last 10 years and the doctors gave him few months, so we got her married quickly.” He added that this case was later pulled back.
Atul Subhash accused his wife of filing false cases against his elderly parents and brother, accusing them of assaulting her.
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