Revision as of 12:07, 22 February 2014

Dowry-related suicides

From the archives of The Times of India 2010

Not all demands dowry-linked: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has held that a solitary demand not followed by any harassment of the wife doesn’t constitute a dowry demand and is not punishable under section 304 B of Indian Penal Code. Justice V K Jain gave the ruling while acquitting three members of a man’s family who had appealed against their conviction for dowry death.

The main allegation against the accused was that they had asked for Rs 50,000 from the victim’s family and sent her to her parental house to get it. After it failed to come across any persistence in the demand for the amount, HC clarified that just because a demand was made once after the wedding, it doesn’t automatically attract penal provisions related to dowry as it was not ‘‘referable to the marriage.’’

‘‘Demand for something which has not been agreed to be given at any time before or at the time of marriage and which isn’t in the contemplation of the boy or his family members and which is neither expected by them to be given in the marriage can’t be said to be connected with marriage,’’ justice Jain noted, emphasizing that a demand should be in connection to marriage for it to be covered under section 304 B.

Explaining ‘‘in connection with the marriage of the said parties’’ provided under Section 304-B of the IPC, the court said that it clearly excludes the demands that were not in connection with the marriage of the parties.

The judge further clarified that even if the victim was harassed with respect to one demand, if it wasn’t connected to marriage it would not attract 304 B. ‘‘It is difficult to accept that the demands which are not at all referable to the marriage would also constitute dowry demand, in case woman is subjected to cruelty or harassment in connection to such a demand,’’ he said.

However, the judge noted there are demands other than those covered under the definition of dowry which are made after the marriage and such demands do result in subjecting the girl to cruelty and harassment. He suggested the legislature change the law if these have to be dealt with under the IPC.

Earlier, the father and brother of the victim, Lovely, had alleged she committed suicide after being harassed for not bringing Rs 50,000. The trial court had in March 2005 sentenced the victim’s husband, Naresh Kumar Sharma, besides his father, mother and elder brother to seven years of imprisonment.

2012: Cases registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act

Andhra Pradesh tops list in dowry cases in 2012

PTI | Feb 21, 2014

NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh tops the list in Dowry cases with 2511 cases recorded in 2012 while Odisha was second with 1487 cases recorded under the Dowry Prohibition Act.

Madhya Pradesh was in the top of the list for domestic violence with 9,536 cases followed by Tamil Nadu which recorded 3,838 cases under the Domestic Violence Act 2005 in 2012 according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Karnataka (1328), Bihar (1353) and Jharkhand (1066) also reported quite a large number of dowry cases while Andhra Pradesh reported 2150 cases of domestic violence for the year 2012.

The NCRB data shows an increasing trend of dowry and domestic violence cases in most of the states barring Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura which reported zero cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act, said the Women and Child Development Ministry in its reply to the Lok Sabha today.

Similarly, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Pondicherry and Chandigarh reported zero cases of domestic violence.

Over all, a total 9038 cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act were registered in 2012 while 16309 cases under the Domestic Violence Act 2005 were registered in India for the same period. toireporter@timesgroup.com