Police Cannot Make Arrests Until Dowry Cases Are Verified - Nirmal Singh 3C Company

There is a growing trend among women of India involved in discorded marriages to exploit the law that allows them to file complaints against their husbands and in-laws in criminal cases. A truckload of hearings have taken place on the issue, but on Thursday, a bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice A K Goel decided that section 498A is being taken advantage of by women and human right are violated as a result of that. 

Frustrated wives misuse the anti-dowry law, and Supreme Court has directed that there will be no arrest in such cases until a complete and thorough verification is done on the allegations.

The conception of women about this has always been to suffer behind closed doors without going to the authorities – they would rather suffer injustice than bringing a bad name to their families by taking cases of domestic violence to the court. - Nirmal Singh 3C Company

Women only approach the court when things really get out of hand and they cannot take abuse anymore. But things have changed drastically in the past few years with more domestic cases surfacing. There is no doubt that women have been misusing the section 498A in dowry cases – hundreds of innocent people are behind bars just because the authorities didn’t bother to check the authenticity of the allegations on them. - Nirmal Singh 3C Company

On Thursday, the Supreme Court decided to change the perception of the section concerned with dowry cases – victims will be judged on face value rather than the allegations of the wives. They will be penalized and jailed only after the respective charges are verified. 

‘This is a serious issue – women who are in disruptive relationships with their husbands exploit the power of Section 498A. They file complaints against their husbands and in-laws on no ground. I am not saying that every harassment case is faked or should be nullified, but most of them actually and should be verified. With the ruling of Supreme Court, the police and the concerned authorities will have to verify the charges before taking any action.’ - NirmalSingh 3C Company

According to the ruling of the Supreme Court, all states will now have to bring in family welfare committees in every single district which will be headed by law enforcement officers. These FWCs will check the authenticity of the complaints before moving forward.