Dowry law in India

Payment of a dowry, gift — often financial, has a long history in many parts of the world. In India, the payment of a dowry was prohibited in 1961 under Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498a of the Indian Penal Code were enacted to make it easier for the wife to seek redress from potential harassment by the husband's family. Dowry laws has come under criticism that they are misused by women and their families.


Dowries

Gifts given by the parents of the bride are considered "stri-dhan", i.e. property of the woman, traditionally representing her share of her parent's wealth.


The 1961 Dowry Prohibition Act

This act prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry, "as consideration for the marriage". where "dowry" is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage. Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal. Asking or giving of dowry can be punished by an imprisonment of up to six months, or a fine of up to Rs. 5000. It replaced several pieces of anti-dowry legislation that had been enacted by various Indian states.


IPC Section 304B

This Section of the Indian Penal Code was inserted by a 1986 amendment. The Dowry deaths law defines a 'dowry death' as the death of a woman caused by any burns or bodily injury or which does not occur under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage. For a woman's death to be a dowry death, it must also be shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry. If this is proved, the woman's husband or relative is required to be deemed to have caused her death. Whoever commits dowry death is required to be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life.


IPC Section 498A

Section 498A was inserted into the penal code in 1983 it reads:

Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

In practice, cruelty is taken to include the demanding of a dowry. This section is non-bailable, non-compoundable (i.e. it cannot be privately resolved between the parties concerned) and cognizable (i.e. the police can arrest the accused without investigation or warrants) on a report from a woman or close relative. Another examples of a cognizable law in India was the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act.


U.S. citizen men marrying Indian nationals

A number of U.S. citizen men who have come to India to marry Indian nationals have been arrested and charged with crimes related to dowry extraction. Many of the charges stem from the U.S. citizen’s inability to provide an immigrant visa for his prospective spouse to travel immediately to the United States.

The courts sometimes order the U.S. citizen to pay large sums of money to his spouse in exchange for the dismissal of charges. The courts normally confiscate the American’s passport, and he must remain in India until the case has been settled.

It is stated in Travel Advisory by US - Furthermore, since the police may arrest anyone who is accused of committing a crime (even if the allegation is frivolous in nature), the Indian criminal justice system is often used to escalate personal disagreements into criminal charges. This practice has been increasingly exploited by dissatisfied business partners, contractors, estranged spouses, or other persons with whom the U.S. citizen has a disagreement, occasionally resulting in the jailing of U.S. citizens pending resolution of their disputes.



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Nandakumar Says:

January 30, 2007 at 7:15 pm

Am harassed under 498A section, falsely implicated under this Dowry case, kindly assist me, save me and my family, else we have to see the extremes of it, probably i think this the end of my life here. as my family is suffering the humiliation alongwith me, i think it is unbearable, just imagine lined up in court with criminals and murderers, oh my god my blood boils just at the thought of it, i don’t know how am i going to face it, i just finished 2 hearings in the court, but still a long way to go….i lived with this girl only for 2 days, she wanted to come separately and stay with her parents and take care of her industry, i said no to it, we were separated for 2 years, now they have lodged dowry case, against me and my old parents…is there someone to assist this poor guy?

I have the same problem,,, please HELP

The modern day arranged marriage

In the olden times there used to be a lot of dowry cases where the Grooms family would ask the brides family to pay a dowry in order for their daughter to get married to the groom. In a majority of the cases, that does not happen in the modern day. Neither did it happen in mine.
The Law of the land in India immensely protects the Bride and her family from these kind of dowry cases in today’s world. The extent of this protection is such that the bride’s families have started misusing the Law to have their own interests fulfilled by the family of the groom. In some cases, the bride’s families have gone to the extent of holding the groom’s family at ransom with the threat of filing a dowry case.
This law is corrupting the minds of the brides’ families and hence the institution os marriage has become nothing more than a mere joke for the Indian bridal community.
I understand that the Bride shall always be honored as a woman and treated with utmost respect. If things do not work out between the Woman and the man, why should the groom be forced to live under the fear of being sued and sent to the prison by the family of the girl?