Report on Indian Marriage Problems and Issues

Harassment and blackmail of husbands and their relatives in Marriage Disputes by misuse of Anti-Dowry law (Sec. 498A of IPC), Domestic Violence Act 2005 and related laws by wives.

Marriages in India are supposed to be very sacred and considered to be once in lifetime affair. The marriage occasion is an integral part of social traditions and rituals in which both side family members get involved very emotionally and their community members participate to give blessings for the happy married life. But very recently, increasing number of married couples are experiencing distress and incompatibilities. Due to various socio-economic factors, there is a rapid rise in the discontent marriages in India as a result of which, the rate of Divorces and Separations have gone up. By this unpredictable social disaster, the family courts and other courts, police administration and various Counseling Cells are feeling helpless due to sudden bombardment of matrimonial problem related cases.

It has become a custom in India that a lot of social and legal concerns are expressed for wives in cases of matrimonial disputes, but husbands and their family members are ignored. It turns more fatal to the husband and his entire family when the trivial marriage disputes are given shape of the cruelty to wife due to dowry demands by false intentions of a promiscuous wife. The facts of the matter may be totally different, which are intentionally distorted to gain benefit from women-favored laws of India. There are stringent laws made in favor of women, which are normally misused against those husbands and their parents who don’t agree to their wives' demands. So it adversely impacts the entire family, and rightly proves that the moment of marriage in Indian society is that important decision of life, which can extremely change the lives of not only husband and wife but also the lives of parents. In fact a true harassment case is actually an exception to this rule. As a man is physically stronger while it is claimed by women that women are mentally stronger, hence it’s protecting men from mental violence while protecting women from physical violence. Indian Social & Legal Systems take for granted the notion that in marital dispute and domestic violence cases, the husband, his relatives and friends usually harass his wife for demanding dowry, and ignore the instances when the wife and her relatives falsely accuse and harass the husband and his relatives by putting various false and baseless allegations pertaining to stringent provisions of Anti-Dowry law. It is to misuse the laws for sympathy, extortion and blackmailing. There are special women-favored laws that provide for women who claim to be harassed but not for men. Men, being innocent, who seek to fight back against such harassment find that they have also to fight the systemic bias of the governments, the corrupt system, the police and the courts against them in addition to prejudice propagated by feminist organizations. The harassment of husband and his relatives has grown worst in recent times as the norms of Indian Society has evolved from the Joint Family to the Nuclear Family, making the husband, his parents and relatives more susceptible to domestic violence which is not defined under the law.

To deal with Dowry / Harassment cases, the Anti-Dowry Law Section 498A was inserted into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in year 1983 by Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act of 1983 (Act No. 46 of 1983). It reads that Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty (mental or physical) shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.Explanation: For the purposes of this section, “cruelty” means(a) Any wilful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman; or(b) Harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.

Analysis of the section shows that this law deals with four types of cruelty: 1) Any conduct that is likely to drive a woman to suicide, 2) Any conduct which is likely to cause grave injury to the life, limb or health of the woman, 3) Harassment with the purpose of forcing the woman or her relatives to give some property, or 4) Harassment because the woman or her relatives are either unable to yield to the demand for more money or do not give some share of the property.
Under this provision, the following acts would amount to cruelty to a wife that may become the ingredients of a false and fabricated FIR:o drinking and coming home late coupled with beating and demand of dowry;o filing false and defamatory proceedings against the wife and humiliating her with search warrants and seizing her personal property;o maltreating wife for dowry and sending her back to her father's house resulting in illness due to shock and after effects of cruelty;o cruelty and harassment of a mistress;o baseless allegations of adultery, infidelity or unchastity of wife;o baseless allegation that wife was carrying illegitimate child;o accusing wife of being barren;o scolding the wife leading her to commit suicide;o repeated demands for dowry articles and money from newly married wife and parents and consequent harassment;o taking away child to harass wife for dowry;

Sec. 498A of IPC is a cognizable crime, which obliges a police officer to arrest the accused without a warrant. In such cases of ‘Crime against Women’, the police authorities are under an obligation to take immediate action on receipt of a complaint or of credible information, visit the scene of the crime, investigate the facts, apprehend the offender and arraign him before a court of law having jurisdiction over the matter. The aims of section 498A were to help wife to stay with her husband, protecting wives from marital violence, abuse, and extortionist dowry demands. But the actual implementation of this Act has left a bitter trail of disappointment. Since there is no penalty or a fine for filing a false case, many women are misusing this law to dictate terms. It is a myth that Sec 498A is protecting the women, in reality it is against women themselves and also adversely effect children and aged people. Reality is 498A is destroying marital harmony and gives no solution to solve the Problems of Marriage; rather it is breaking Indian family system. If the husband has filed for ‘Restitution of Conjugal Rights’ under Section 9 of IPC, or Divorce and wife does not want to comply so she files false complaint under Sec. 498A to blackmail husband to increase her bargaining powers. The IPC498A is so convenient to misuse and worse than TADA or POTA, but the lawmakers didn't consider the effect of any possibility of it's misuse and how it will spoil the basic foundation of institution of marriage in Indian Society.

A large number of cases filed under anti-dowry law IPC 498A are not cases of actual dowry demands, but a reflection of a more sinister design to legally blackmail innocent husband and in-laws for money. This is borne out by the statistics from many sources (including the Council of Social Research) that show that more than 90% of the cases filed under section 498a are without merit. Though projected to be a law benefiting women, 498a has, ironically, victimized countless innocent women related to the husband’s family.

These biased laws and their unfair implementation is increasing the single parenting, distrust in the ‘laws and legal system’ and marriage, dissatisfaction and insecurity among the law abiding citizens and a great hatred and vengeance for country. It is taking a heavy toll on the sensitive minds of young people who are now scared to marry with an Indian bride. Due to these faulty laws, many innocent, lawful and reputed citizens are being defamed as culprits and criminals in society. The whole drama also affects and involves other people of society who are colleagues, friends and relatives of the accused and get shocked to hear the dowry harassment case on accused which they can not believe as they have known the person very well. It is seen that the society is altogether opposing such laws that are heavily misused in the interest of daughter-in-law only, who terrorizes the husband, his family and the whole society. Abuse of Section-498A Should Be immediately curtailed and law abusers should be punished without mercy to stop this dangerous trend, which is creating havoc in family, society and the nation.

Today, the issue of “misuse of laws” has become a real threat to the sustainability and existence of ‘Institution of Marriage’ in Indian society and family. The problem can be controlled by the proactive participation and initiatives of government, senior persons and social workers of society, in the same way when they together raised voice to safeguard harassed women and supported the making of such gender-biased laws which are now easily misused due to corrupt administrative framework.

The state governments and police authorities shall consider the proactive measures while dealing with complaints under “Cruelty Against Women” so that safety and protection of family unit and marriages in Indian society. It is becoming the utmost society’s responsibility today that such laws related to “Crime Against Women’ shall not be misused by unscrupulous women, and the society shall help and support for saving the marriage and the future of involved children, the wife, the husband and their relatives.

Many harassed husbands and their family members cannot handle the drastic and dramatic changes that shake their lives so desperately seek genuine advice. They need experienced persons to share problems of intimate relations that are very sensitive in nature. To sort out the upsurge in such marital disputes, various volunteer based self-help groups are formed to provide free advice and counseling on Indian Marriage Issues like Separation, Divorce, Harassment, Cruelty, Torture, Incompatibility, Depression, Psychological disorders, Misunderstanding and Domestic Violence. They provide free advice for preserving the marital harmony and counseling for amicable settlements between the disputed parties. These self-help groups are formed by victims of abuse of dowry law, that provide support though helplines at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and many other places. Volunteers organize weekly counseling meetings on every Saturday and Sunday. The members are victimized husbands and their family members who are running the country-wide campaign “Save Indian Family Movement” against their false implication in false complaints under laws related to Dowry Harassment like Dowry Prohibition Act (DP Act), Sec. 498A of IPC and the new Domestic Violence Act 2005 (DV Act). The members are actively organizing regular Press Conferences, Seminars, Public Protests and Dharnas around the country to create the social awareness on misuse of ‘women favored laws’. The resourceful websites like http://www.498a.org/ and http://www.mynation.net/ are extensively developed to provide assistance pertaining to the information on misuse of Sec. 498A IPC. The Assumption of the Law that in a given marital dispute, domestic violence happens only to a wife in unfair and in violation of the basic principles of justice. In a typical situation, a wife could act cruel to her husband physically, mentally or by her anti-social behavior. As in most Indian families, the husband’s parents, unmarried sisters and brothers, married brothers and their wives and children also live with him, so the wife can be cruel to them. In such circumstances, many husbands and their old parents have committed suicide after being abused by everyone including the police, the courts and the civil authorities. The vast majority of cases where the wife and her aides are guilty of harassment and more go unpunished due to limitations in our laws and social values.

Traditionally, in India, a newly married woman was expected to be quiet and submissive to her husband and his relatives, but principally with his mother, sisters and sisters-in-law, with a clear hierarchy operating among the womenfolk. While in name, a Patriarchy, the Indian family has traditionally been a Matriarchy. This operating hierarchy in joint Indian families used to work as major mental and physical support and helped newcomers the daughter-in-laws or ‘bhahu’ to adjust and provided for their all type comfort at all times. The aim has always been to provide for the needs of all members of the household without exception. However, under pressures of modernity, this norm has fractured and these days the married male get separated from their parents and other siblings early in their married life to establish independently with their wife and children. There may be many reasons for creating such nuclear families but the most prominent ones are the disputes and tensions in between the daughter-in-law, the ‘bhahu’ and rest of family members. In most of such cases, the husbands are compelled to leave their old parents under the enormous pressure, threatening of filing false complaints in police (Dowry Case and Domestic Violence Act) and blackmail by their wives and In-laws.

The modern norm is the Nuclear Family, and it is not unheard of for husband and wife to combine against the husband’s aged parents, to harass them to move out of their own property and to force them to live in temples, dharmshalas, streets, old-age homes or streets. It is seen that Dowry laws are also being misused as tool of harassment and intentionally used against old and sick parents for the purpose of grabbing their property and money.

Moreover, women are now taught not to submit but insist on their rights. An educated urban middle class woman is well aware of her rights when she enters the house of her in-laws or husband after her marriage. She is well aware that just by marring the man, she is entitled the legal rights in property of her in-laws or husband and part of her husband’s salary irrespective of any conditions even if she would not live with them, not behaving properly, having fraudulent marriage, doing mental and physical cruelty against husband and his relatives and not fulfilling her marital duties. It would be unimaginable to know that many newly married brides received heavy alimony amount that could reach up to Rs.50 Lacs for the settlement of marriage disputes and dowry case, so the legal provisions empowered the newly married brides to ask for their rights in the hard earned money and property of husband and in-laws that may have taken years for establishment.

Marriage is a major catalyst of change for women, who are obliged to move to a new home and to adjust to a new family. However, this is inevitable, and in the long history of mankind, it has been done. However, there are some cases of women who insist on clinging to their parents and siblings. The wife could pressure her husband to get separated from in-laws due to lack of her individual space and freedom. The wife may be suffering from Borderline personality disorder, or she could be her parent’s only child, or only daughter who is accustomed of getting extra privileges at her parental home. The wife’s parents could be demanding their “damaad” (son-in-law) to settle with them and become a “Ghar Jawai” which men usually would not prefer. This will usually lead to a rupture between the husband and wife. This is another instance where the woman can turn the facts on their head and make false allegations of harassment for dowry by her husband, his relatives and even his friends.

When two or more people live together, each of them cannot behave as a commander-in-chief. Someone has to yield to the other. In most marriages, husband and wives make sacrifices in order to adjust to each other. However, when both insist on their rights, acting as independent and sovereign countries, clashes are bound to develop. Due to this, even a small disagreement can degenerate into a major quarrel. When their views and ideas don't match, such couples will quarrel on trifling topics. Verbal abuse and a refusal to adjust to each other feeds on itself in a vicious circle, increasing misunderstanding between the couple, so that they come to categorically reject each other's ways and no longer wish to live together.

The modern trend is for the wife and her relatives to pressurize the husband to separate from his parents and live apart in a nuclear family setup. In some cases, this is not acceptable to the husband for good reasons, such as being the only person who really loves and cares for his parents, even if he has other brothers and sisters who could do it, but who are indifferent to his parents for financial and other reasons. In most such cases, when the husband refuses the wish of wife and in-laws, the wife begins to sulk, abuse his parents physically and verbally and even desert him.

But the Law has handed a new weapon in the hands of such a woman who refuses to adjust and who insists on her own way. She can merely walk into the nearest police station and register a complaint against the husband and his relatives for harassing her for dowry. The Law, as amended progressively since 1983, presumes the culpability of the accused and compels the police to blindly arrest the persons named as accused, regardless of their age and ability to move and cause harm, so that from bedridden elders to babies-in-arms are mercilessly hauled off to prison. The husband and his family members get a great shock after knowing their offence to realize the wife’s ill-designs until the police wake them up from sleep one morning. It is seen that police arrest on a day before government holidays or on Friday to elongate the arrest period.

Thereafter, for several years often extending to decades, they are compelled to defend themselves against the charges, while the woman who made the complaint has to do nothing to prove her claims. The Law places the burden of proving the innocence on the accused, casting into the garbage can the basic and fundamental legal principle that a person is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty!

The following, in our experiences, are the symptoms, reasons and common causes for marital strife or the grounds for disagreements and mutual recriminations between the husband and the wife and between their respective families and supporters that may eventually result in a false dowry harassment case against husband and his family:

a) Unnatural Demands To Support Her Parents: (i.) Wife is sending out money, gifts and other items on a regular basis to support her parents and siblings, given by the husband to wife for the purpose of home usage or for her personal use, without husband’s knowledge and permission. (ii.) Harassing the husband for providing large sum of money (in Lacs) for the settlement of her siblings, for marriage expenses of her sister, for building their house or buying any property, for developing her brother’s business or for establishing her parental family;

b) Complains of Financial Limitations: Financial Wife frequently quarrelling over the limited salary of husband, financial crunches and her demands of luxurious living and thus cursing and mentally torturing him. Wife complaining of financial crunch and misrepresenting her situation, claiming to be henpecked by the husband and his relatives. Wife spends lavishly without considering the budget of her husband, frequently exhibits her despair of not getting luxurious and her kind of standard of living and bollywood kind of life style and shows the society and her friends that she has come from a very rich family;

c) Illicit Relations: (i.) Wife may be continuing her illicit relations with her pre-marital boyfriend even after marriage or developing extra-marital relations at her workplace or in her neighborhood. When her husband gets to know, she falsely complains her parents and relatives of her harassment for money and create false stories of husband’s torturous behavior to cover her illicit behavior. (ii.) Wife doing false propaganda in neighborhood, relations and community by falsely blaming husband for having sexual relations with his family members i.e. his mother, sister, cousin, sister-in-law ‘bhabhi’, aunt ‘chachi’ or ‘mami’ etc. There may be false blames on husband for having sexual relations with housemaid or with his woman colleague at office.

d) Psychological Terrorism: Demonstrating abusive behavior such as abusing her husband’s parents, sisters and brothers with filthy abusive words, name calling and in a deliberately extra-loud voice with the intention of creating a scene of public humiliation and intending to intimidate and terrorize her victims. Showing uncontrollable and aggressive behavior that may be a symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder or other psychological disorder;

e) Expropriations: (i.) Demanding transfer of the husband’s property and assets to her name and demanding to fix the large amount on her name in a bank. Wife and her parents compelling her husband to demand his property rights in his parent’s property and to get separated from them. (ii.) Even if wife is earning good salary, she is not supporting husband for any financial burden of house expenses and not providing any information of usage of her salary income and start quarrel on starting the topic itself. (iii.) Wife demands and collects each and every detail of her husband’s financial information related to prior of marriage including investments, fix deposits, property investments, salary and other income sources. (iv.) Taking away and stealing precious jewelry items and other valuables without conveying husband and other members of house that would also include items given by husband’s parents and relatives (v.) Wife is not giving any account of the money given by husband for house expenditures, she is not ready to share the usage of her salary also;

f) Desertion: (i.) Wife visiting her parents frequently and lingering for long at her parental home without any reasons and leaving the marital home (husband’s house) along with their children without giving any reason to husband or his parents, thus effectively kidnapping his children. Wife and her parents continuously rejecting husband’s plea to send wife to her marital home and denying him access to his own beloved offspring so that he would surrender to her demands, and also demanding legal separation or divorce for no just cause with the intention of placing unlawful and unjust psychological pressure on husband. (ii.) Wife married under her parents’ pressure but was not interested in groom, as she loved some other man whom she wanted to marry, but her parents did not allow because of low status of her lover, his different caste or community low educational background, difference in age and not having good financial status and career prospects. So, after marriage wife always thinking about her lover, always repenting her decision of marriage, cant adjust to her husband’s wishes and thus wants to anyhow leave her husband.

g) Abortion and Child Birth as Weapon against Husband: (i.) Wife aborting the child at her parental place very secretly with support of her parents and other counselors involved, without informing her husband and in-laws about its reasons and causes, just in awe of pre-assumption that her marriage will not continue and it would be easier for her to resettle again in life with other man without the burden of child. Wife later proves such abortion as a result of natural bleeding and medical complications happening due to mental stress because of her husband’s and her in-laws’ ill treatment and dowry demands. (ii.) There may be other reasons for abortion of child, if the husband get to know about the illicit relationship of wife and start suspecting pregnancy that he is not the father of child, then wife would leave secretly for aborting the child without telling her husband and his relatives. (iii.) If abortion happened at husband’s place due to medical abnormalities found in foetus growth, then it is later falsely proved by wife as abortion pressurized by husband and in-laws as they got to know that it was a female child but only wanted male child and she is victimized by torture of husband and his relatives for the demand of money, property and dowry. (iv.) If wife gives birth to a girl child, she falsely accuses husband and his family members for harassing and ill-treating her to demand birth of male child and thus accusing them for doing gender discrimination;

h) Extortion: Demanding large sums of money, property and jewelry from husband and making false allegations against the husband of atrocities committed against her, and blackmailing the husband or his family members for valuable moveable or immoveable properties with threats of falsely invoking women favored laws against them. If husband seeks divorce from torturous wife as she and her relatives are torturing him, she is not joining him in marital home or not allowing him to see children, then she threatens to put false case of dowry harassment against whole family to put them in jail that may include old and sick parents, unmarried and married sisters and brothers for using it as a tool for extortion;

i) Misrepresenting and manipulating facts and incidents: (i.) To cast in sinister light and as crimes and atrocities against herself. Even if husband has normally called wife without any quarrel to convince and solving the disputes, she complains of receiving threatening call from husband for demand of money, and usually these amounts falsely fabricated in FIR are: Rs. 1 lac, 2 lacs or 10 lacs. Wife accuses husband for physically assaulting her if he visits her parents’ home for the normal meeting and seeing her and it may be that he would be actually manhandled and beaten up by wife’s relatives. The husband visits for the purpose of bringing about a reconciliation, but her parents would deliberately misrepresent his visit to the authorities, police and courts as a threat and as part of an imaginary campaign by him of intimidating them, with the intention of misusing unjust laws and the whole system for harassing and blackmailing husband and his relatives. (ii.) Indulged in intentional misinterpretations and misrepresentations of various family situations to create differences in between the husband and his parents, siblings and other blood relatives and attempting to alienate the husband’s affections from them, and demanding that husband separate from and abandon his aged, dependent parents. (iii.) A push for a quick involvement: The wife's side pressurized husband for immediate marriage and for quick decision on the marriage. The marriage was done hastily without proper planning, without involving much of relatives, in awe of bride's demands. The girl and her relatives said that the husband would make the perfect match with her, and comes on very strong, claiming, I’ve/We've never felt loved like this by anyone/or so close to anybody." An Abusive woman/ her family pressures the man/ his family for an exclusive commitment almost immediately. (iv.) After filing FIR under sec. 498A, wife sends the husband’s arrest related documents to his workplace and asks for the required action against husband. Thus the husband gets suspended due to documents submitted by wife. In the followup, wife applies for maintenance under Sec. 125 at family court when husband is suspended and not having proper income. After getting the order of maintenance, wife does not properly attend the dates at family court or for matter of 498A. In some cases, wife receives money in cash from husband’s side for purpose of ‘Out of court settlement’ but acts mischievously and denies any such acceptance of money, when money is paid in cash;

j) Ruthless False Allegations on Husband, In-laws and Relatives: There is a set standard of allegations that seems to follow in the FIRs related to such dowry harassment disputes. Wife makes every effort to impregnate the severest of the severe charges against husband and in-laws. In below mentioned cases normally police puts severe provisions, when it’s very difficult to prove that no one was involved in such acts. (i.) Wife falsely telling her close relatives, friends, office colleagues, neighbors etc. that she has been beaten up by her drunken husband and in-laws from the beginning of marriage. Wife tells that her in-laws support husband when they together beat her and many a times lock her in room, made her a captive and do not allow her any food. Wife alleges that she is given work of whole family and no one assisting her for cores work. She is threatened to give her salary to her husband who spends it in drinks. (ii.) Many a times wife herself makes some scars on their body, arms, by herself hitting, cutting or hurting her own body, without any cause, but to make the cut marks, signs and scars to be used as an evidence in filing a Medical Report. Sometimes wife claims that husband was giving her poison and wanted to kill her. (iii.) In some cases, it is seen that the smart wife will herself pour kerosene on her clothes and will visit the nearest police station telling fabricated story that her husband and his relatives were trying to kill her by pouring kerosene and burning her in their house, but somehow she struggled to escape from their captivity and approached police for help. (iv.) In some case the wife allegates that she is sexually assaulted by her husband, his friends and other family members, that the relatives of husband tried to rape her, which is normally the father or brother of husband who is falsely charged with this crime.

k) Blackmail and Mental Torture of Husband: (i.) Wife giving threats to commit suicide if her unjust demands are not yielded to and doings acts of committing suicide in front of husband and other family members by running towards the terrace of house, catching the live electric wire, opening up the gas burner to spread the gas in whole house, picking up the kitchen knife or some sharply edged article for hitting herself, swallowing the phenyle, Detoll or rat poison or sleeping tablets, writing suicide notes blaming husband and leaving them on the bed and table or pasting them on walls. (ii.) Wife not talking to anyone in house for many days without any reasons or quarrels, does not respond properly and behave properly to anyone’s supportive gestures. She would sit alone in a corner when guests visit home and does not welcome, greet or involve with others. On asking her the reasons of her abnormal behavior, she would start crying, shouting and abusing without listening anything. (iii.) Wife withholding the sex and does not allow her husband to come near to her for many months, for using it as a tool of blackmail to make him agree to her every wish, terms and conditions. (iv.) Wife stops cooking food and performing her regular work at home. She ignores to face husband and comes late from her office and talk minimum with him. (v.) Wife not allowing the in-laws to meet and see their grandchildren and becomes angry and behaves angrily and rudely if they try doing so;

l) Parents of wife accusing husband for not satisfying or being incapable of satisfying their daughter thus amounting to psychological cruelty and abusive behavior with the intention of demoralizing and systematically victimizing him. Husband is asked to undergo medical examinations to prove his sexual vitality, that he is not impotent. Such baseless charges by wives and their relatives are very common in case if there is no child born out of wedlock, but there are exceptions as many husbands are facing such baseless blames even after many years of spending married life and having children. The motive of such shameless accusations is to embarrass husband and his family in society and pressurizing them to agree for giving divorce and money;

m) Defamation: Defaming husband and his family in their neighborhood and relations by spreading false stories of her harassment and torture. Normally husband and his relatives gets the news of wife’s torture as surprise when someone tells and advices indirectly to be polite and more understanding to wife, as they are totally unaware of what is going around. During family and social gatherings, there may be moments when family members would be surprised and amazed on wife’s non-social and illogical behavior when she would misbehave and ill-treat in front of guests and family friends, falsely blaming her husband and others and proving herself as victim of torture and harassment. Usually such scenario is a sign of initial phase of making of false dowry harassment case;

n) Excessive involvement of wife’s parents and relatives by interference and misguidance in husband’s life and dictating him on every domestic matter or marital questions. (i.) Wife’s parents asking husband to live with them as ‘Ghar Jawai’ leaving his parents and job and they would take care of him by supporting to establish his business or job. The pressure of becoming ‘Ghar Jawai’ on husband comes in most cases where wife has no brother or she is the only child of parents. (ii.) Husband living separately from his parents where wife’s parents visit frequently to interfere in the private life of husband and dictating him to obey every wish of wife for future benefit. (iii.) In case of wife’s illicit relations, it is surprising that parents try to cover her acts and ignore any discussions for solving the misunderstanding in between the husband and wife and thus boost up wife’s ill-intentions. To cover such shameless acts of their daughter, they start pressuring the husband to not discuss it with others and threaten him and his relatives for false Dowry harassment case and putting them in jail. Instead of making their daughter understand, they ignore all the facts given by husband and blindly support their daughter for whatever she did. (iv.) After becoming pregnant, wife starts making the ground and environment that she is not living happily at husband’s house and will not have proper care as she would get at her parents’ house. Wife’s parents start convincing the husband to send her to parents’ house for the child’s delivery. In many such cases, wife and her parents stopped attending the phone calls of husband once she reached there and her parents start using abusive language while talking to husband, his parents and other relatives. Even after a long gap after delivery happened for which no information was given to husband, wife did not come to husband’s home and then they started giving threatening of filing false dowry case and ultimately they filed it. (v.) If wife is doing a job at her parental place, which she does not want to leave, her parents ask husband to leave his job or business for coming to her city of choice, so that she could be near to her parents. (vi.) The girl's mother is dominant with a big ego (or short tempered) and her father is a henpecked husband. This combination makes the house unstable because of over-emotionalism. Henpecked men being suppressed develop vicious traits. So, while mother-in-law remains dominant and arrogant, the father-in-law behaves viciously. Girls subconsciously seek men who are similar in behavior to their fathers. So, a girl from this kind of a house has a greater chance to have serious marital problems, as she needs a henpecked husband. If the guy is non-assertive and principled (gender equality oriented), then this humility is often considered as a weakness in above kind of families.

o) Wife’s parents are of cruel mentality: (i.) They are known in their neighborhood to be socially cut-off, selfish, self-centered and being anti-social. Wife and her parents being cynically manipulative, frequently changing their stand and statements to take advantage of every opportunity to misrepresent and embarrass the husband and his relatives with deliberate intent. Wife’s parents failing to restrain, reprimand and correct her for her wrongdoings but rather giving her full and unconditional support, and in turn falsely blaming the husband and in-laws for domestic troubles. (ii.) Wife's family is newly-rich, likes to show-off (their house/cars/paintings/relatives/ connections, etc.), Related to politicians/bureaucrats/lawyers/judges/police officers; Has a history of filing cases against anybody and everybody (search the website of the courts, Father acts like a collector, Wife /her sister has been in more than one previous relationship, etc.;

p) Intimidation: (i.) Wife’s side always ready to exhibit money and power and boast themselves of having good contacts in the police, government and among politicians, with the intention of intimidating the husband and his relatives to surrender to their unjust demands. (ii.) Mindless and malicious opposition to each and every measure suggested by the husband for settling the dispute, such as an application for Restitution of Conjugal Rights under section 9 (asking wife to come back to live with husband) or for Divorce in the Family Court, etc. Wife would oppose any thing that husband would say, even if it is in favor of the marriage. (iii.) The brother and parents of wife start talking abusively on phone with husband without any reason. Brothers and relatives of wife come and beat husband and his relatives, without telling any reason;

q) Suspicion, Mistrust and Misunderstanding: (i.) Wife spends lot of time on calling and receiving phone calls and talking to her mother and relatives on phone or mobile and thus is in continuous touch with them who may misguide her and act as remote control device of husband’s life. It is seen that wife follows the advices of her mother and tries implementing them at husband’s house. Such may be the extent of communication in between the wife and her mother that her mother would know on regular basis that what the husband is planning for his financial investments, how much the husband spends on purchase of homely items like clothes and groceries, when the wife is going out with husband, when she is cooking what, who is visiting their house, what her mother-in-law or sister-in-law said in morning while taking breakfast and what the husband and wife are doing in the bedroom. Such unnecessary exchange of information in between wife and her mother usually invites mother’s views that are generally challenging to from what is expected by the husband in his house and thus it creates strife, suspicion, mistrust and misunderstanding in between their relationship. As a result of her mother’s regular interference and misguidance, wife starts behaving differently, demanding and expecting lot more things from her husband while hoping for lot of favors from him. But wife ignores her responsibilities and what is supposed to be done according to the requirement of her matrimonial house and need of hour. Thus, wife’s behavior invites suspicion and criticism, which later develops into mistrust and misunderstanding in marital relationship. Due to constant unnecessary exchange of information in between wife and her relatives, they start treating the husband with suspicion and denying him normal courtesy & respect. (ii.) Habitual and pathological dishonesty towards husband and other family members on domestic affairs and other matters where the husband and other household members have a right and duty to be told the truth in order to uphold and protect the family’s rights and good name in society. (iii.) Wife conceals or suppresses material facts and other medical problems that affect and indeed even negate the marriage, such as her infertility that she was aware of before the marriage, or carrying infectious venereal diseases such as H.I.V., etc. Wife and her parents misrepresented her educational and career related information.

r) Dominating, Controlling and Threatening: (i.) Jealous and excessively possessive: wife prevents you from going to work because ‘you might meet someone" smells your jacket for perfume residue, checks your shirt collar for lipstick marks and goes through your pant pockets. Controlling: Interrogates you intensely (especially if you’re late) about whom you talked to, and where you were. Unrealistic expectations: Expects you to be the perfect man and meet her and her family's every need. Blames others for problems and mistakes: The boss/the employee, her ex-boyfriend/ ex-husband, it’s always someone else’s fault if anything goes wrong. Makes everyone else responsible for her feelings: The abuser says, "You make me angry instead of, "I am angry’ or, "You’re hurting me by not doing what I tell you." Less obvious is the claim "You make me happy." Hypersensitivity: Is easily insulted, claiming that her feelings are hurt when she is really mad. She’ll rant about the injustice of things that are just part of life. Cruelty to animals and to children: Kills, maims (e.g., tears the wings off a butterfly) or punishes animals brutally (e.g., by kicking them till they bleed). Also may expect children to do things that are far beyond their ability (makes an 18 month old stand in a corner or whips a 2-year-old for wetting a diaper) or may tease them until they cry. "Playful" use of coercion during sex: Enjoys initiating and controlling sex, stimulating herself and teasing, asks about husband's sexual fantasies. Verbal abuse: Constantly criticizes you/ your family, or says blatantly cruel, hurtful things; degrades, curses, calls you/ your family ugly names. This may also involve sleep deprivation, waking you up with relentless verbal abuse. Rigid roles: Expects you to serve and obey her/ her family. Sudden mood swings: Switches from sweetly loving to explosively violent in a trotter of minutes or even more confusing, within seconds. You feel as you are walking on "eggshells" around her. Past behavior: May not actually admit to hitting men in the past (but may write it in her journal/diary and says they made her do it or the situation brought in on). Threats: Makes statements like, "My parents will support me even if I murder someone," or "A woman is always right/ the system should always believe the woman" or "I will cut you up the way a fisherman slices fish" and then dismisses them with, "Everybody talks that way," or "I didn’t really mean it." (ii.) Wife tries to show by her behavior and words that others in family are stupid and do not know anything, and she is the one with intellect and has a brain, so whatever she says should be followed by everyone in family because she is always right. She would ignore other family members when they put across their views and would impose her decision on them, just like a pampered child. (iii.) Wife has extreme choices to be fulfilled immediately, which she would impose on her husband and other family members. She would say one fine morning that the husband should immediately get a long leave from office and should go for outing with her, overlooking the fact that her husband has some important office work and he could not get leaves sanctioned so easily. She would cry endlessly on this and will start firing baseless allegations on him saying that he does not care for her feelings and does not want to live with her. Even wife’s parents support her and will suggest husband to do whatever their daughter is demanding or saying, as its nothing wrong in it. Thus the husband would feel like he is a joker but helpless to do as per wife’s wishes.
The reasons behind filing bogus cases are the Extortion of money, fraudulent marriages, extramarital affairs, personal vendetta, domination and alienation that are the most common reasons why a woman files a false case. Since there are no legal repercussions of filing a false case, more and more women use this law to facilitate divorce and to make the most of a failed marriage, with the power to fix husband, get leverage for child custody and illegally demand property rights are added bonuses.

Due to the threat of getting arrested and property related disputes, many parents disown their sons to ensure that they may not get involved in any frivolous and fabricated dowry case in future. It’s happening to such an extent that in newspapers many such advertisements are published in states like Punjab just before the marriage season in awe of precautions from groom’s side. As soon as husband’s family suspects the signs of any dispute with wife, they begin isolate all other family members from wife and ask husband and wife to relocate as far and as soon as possible. It is due to misuse of dowry laws that the society is fearful of the false dowry cases, than to practice of giving and taking dowry.

There is a clear pattern of harassment from the wife side rather than the husband’s side. In fact the 498A is filed only when the husband is tired of harassment and finally decides to stand up and then the aggressor the wife decides to finish off by making the husband and his entire family jailed under false allegations. This is recurring pattern, which cannot be ignored. The reasons behind filing bogus cases are the Extortion of money, fraudulent marriages, extramarital affairs, personal vendetta, domination and alienation that are the most common reasons why a woman files a false case. Since there are no legal repercussions of filing a false case, more and more women use this law to facilitate divorce and to make the most of a failed marriage, with the power to fix husband, get leverage for child custody and illegally demand property rights are added bonuses.

The law can cause irreversible damages to an entire well off family due to a silly reason. Section 498a of Indian Penal Code was brought in through Crl. Act No. 46 of 1983 to prevent dowry deaths of women but it’s rampant misuse had compelled even the Supreme Court to take cognizance of the abuse. In July, 2005, while disposing a WP (C) filed by Sushil Kumar Sharma, the Supreme Court had given stringent guidelines so that innocent persons are not victimized by unscrupulous persons making false accusations under Section 498a of IPC. If would have followed, the abusing powers of police to arrest would have totally stopped. The Supreme Court had warned, “Merely because the provision is constitutional and intra vires, it does not give a licence to unscrupulous persons to wreck personal vendetta or unleash harassment.” The Court had called upon the legislature “to find out ways how the makers of frivolous complaints or allegations can be appropriately dealt with”. The Court had further observed that “misuse of Section 498a of IPC for ulterior purposes can unleash a form of Legal Terrorism. The provision is intended to be used as a shield and not an assassin's weapon. There is no question of investigating agency and Courts dealing with the allegations casually. They cannot follow any straitjacket formula in the matters relating to dowry tortures, deaths and cruelty.” The courts and investigation agencies to act like watchdogs and not bloodhounds according to Supreme Court judgment on 19 July, 2005 (2005(6)SCC281). The Court said, “the ultimate objective of every legal system is to arrive at truth, punish the guilty and protect the innocent.” Referring to the petitioner's contention that the investigating agencies and the courts invariably proceeded on the assumption that the accused was guilty, the Supreme Court had cautioned the courts and said "there is no scope for any pre-conceived notion or view."

By filing a false complaint, fraudulent wives are affecting the credibility of the women who are genuine victims, thereby depriving them of appropriate recourse provided by the law. For every one woman filing a typical false complaint there are at least two women accused: husband's mother and sister or a sister-in-law. Statistics may show that there are more women who are falsely accused in dowry law complaints than the genuine wives who benefited from it. These fraudulent, cruel, sadistic brides are an utter disgrace to womanhood and should not deserve any sympathy from anyone as punishment of an offence is not based on sex.

A wife chooses an abuse and violent behavior to cause physical, sexual, emotional damage and worry. Women who behave this way are often immoral, selfish and egoist. Such a woman uses her fury, moods and impulses to control the people around her and to be noticed. Such women choose deceit, fury and assault to get their own way and then revel in the addicting exhilarating emotional unrest they create. More insidiously, such women present a personable public image to conceal their true character and behavior. These women lie, connive, and extort to insult and humiliate their partner and some argue and use offensive language in the presence of others including their children. Many steal or destroy their partner's possessions. These women are driven by jealousy and view others as rivals. They treat their partners as possessions and strive to isolate them from friends and family.

Many abusive women falsely accuse their partners of infidelity while they are indulged in affairs. These women often abuse children or animals. Nearly all exhibit erratic mood changes, pretend illnesses or injuries, and most are practiced actresses. They are not sick; they play the triple roles of a terrorist, a tyrant, and a victim. At some point, she will falsely accuse her husband or partner of a crime. False allegations of child abuse continue to be a common feature in divorce proceedings and the courts ignore the problem. Now, the domestic violence accusation has become the woman's weapon of choice. Apart from providing the monetary and property gains, the domestic violence act is so easy to fabricate and these women crave the pleasure that comes from destroying their husband or partner.

Persons who have experienced an abusive relationship often experience fear or shame or bewilderment. They have tried everything to satisfy their wives but nothing works to meet her unending demands. These people have found themselves in a dilemma of what would happen next, riding on an emotional roller coaster that they cannot escape. Most of such victimized husbands are sad, depressed, humiliated, and exhausted. Many have lost every pleasure and happiness they had in the world and are worried about their future. Many harassed husbands and their parents have committed suicide, some had enormous mental breakdown and some old parents died due to severe heart attack after continuously suffering from this problem and tensions. However, these abusive women have no limits. Their outrageous behavior escalates to unbelievable levels and in turn no one believes the victimized husband who is considered to be physically stronger and more aggressive than a woman.

The abuse should not considered to be prerogative of men. It is because men are considered the stronger sex, but hardly anyone considers the emotional strength that women have. Emotional and physical abuse is generally believed to be only for women when men are granted as abusers and women as victims. But, the opposite also holds true with the modern educated wives in urban class when the wives also abuse their husbands mercilessly. A woman can be brutal when it comes to blames and accusations. She can invent many lies and kill the soul of the man with every sentence she speaks. A wife may not abuse the man physically, but her emotional abuse may be enough to drive her husband to lunacy, as its intolerable for any husband who would support the living of wife and children and given them place to live, clothes, food, family, love, family and everything that is possible for him.

There is particular contrast that is seen in social behavior of urban men and women. These days, the educated urban class men are mostly very soft and polite and especially when they deal with a woman, they act more courteously. It is a trend these days in the younger generation of men in cities that they want to treat their wives as their friends, and not as per traditions and customs as it was in earlier times. They prepare and encourage their wives to come forward to face the brighter chances and eagerly help and support them to learn more and go for higher education for making a good career, which ultimately would be beneficial for the whole family. Most of the urban class educated men are principally believers of the gender equality and never discriminate among sexes, instead they help women to bring up issues in the front. After marriage, such men try to provide most of the comforts of the world their wife and give them equal status. They would share each and every thing with their wives and involves them in every homely affair. But opposite to it, an educated urban class woman who abuses the man will have no such hesitation in doing so. She would raise her voice, shout at her highest pitch, use most abusive words for in-laws and sister-laws and other relatives, will throw the household items on husband, can use crying and can corner the husband with all her non-stop and imaginary blames because she wants to hurt him. At last, she succeeds in her intentions because a good and well-behaved man will not retaliate or react to the ill-behaved wife and he would tolerate any of her acts.

There is no help for men who get emotionally abused by women. They do not want to hurt their wife and do not want to make it a serious issue, so they keep taking all the abuse. Those women on whom their husbands have greatest faith generally do the greatest abuse. So when the woman turns an abuser, the first reaction of the husband is a total disbelief as they do not accept or believe it. On every occasion of abuse and harassment, he is very confused and takes it with surprise and this situation continues for some time, because the man continues foolishly believe that his wife is getting it wrongly and she is not understanding the things. The husband would think that his wife is not abusing him but actually it is misunderstanding in between the two, but she cannot do that because she loves him. This thinking process is very dangerous, as evil recognizes no sexual difference. If a man can be evil, so can be a woman. Go to a jail and meet the women convicts and ask why they have come to jail. In most cases, they have come for murder of their near and dear ones. But hardly there are studies on women's cruel behavior that is rarely accepted and acknowledged.

It is unfortunate that such cruel wives play with sympathies of public, police and court for their support and misuse draconian laws which were made for protection of women. Due to widespread corruption and low morale values, the whole system surrenders to the desires of a vindictive and hostile woman to harass her husband and in-laws.

The husbands have no way for shelter, no law to protect them from horrendous wives and no government will to listen to their plight. Usually it is a laughing stuff as such stories find their place in the ‘Masala’ news section of newspapers. It’s the society’s psychology at play, a man who is supposed to be physically stronger and a natural caretaker for a woman is bound to become a laughing stuff when he would reveal his most personal secrets of being beaten up by a woman. Due to this reason, such men are reluctant to come out in public to uncover their scars, although they would rather prefer to keep suffering alone in the silence. The media, society and the government should seriously consider such victimized men.

But society is still unaware of it at large and not ready to provide the support to the victimized husbands, as they still ignore men’s concerns and consider them as being chauvinistic, against the rising power of women and equal status in society and as a crying wolf on loosing their privileges of being a man. It is ridiculous when some known feminist said recently that the husbands want to hold on to their birthright to beat up women, despite the reality of India that thousands of husbands are committing suicide due to deprivation of their rights in society and law. The said perception is due to the groundwork of feminists and thousands of women organizations that have been manipulating the concerns of harassed husbands and propagating the biased opinions and views that are actually anti-man. Their lopsided policies have started disintegrating the social system in India, which is used to be the India’s core strength. The women organizations have largely manipulated the data and falsely represented it so attract media and public attention to their biased views. They are unable to provide corrective measures to the problems of harassed husbands and their family members who are falsely implicated under the Dowry Laws (Section 498A). Now it’s the turn of battered husbands in India who need solace, as there is no one for them.

U.S. and British studies support this view that if the wife has chosen abuse or violence, the husband should get a restraining order and end the relationship promptly and irrevocably.

When faced with the breakup of a relationship, some women become vindictive, and abusive women become very dangerous. When others (friends, relatives, police and judges) believe her, they join in, and the frustrated husband or partner finds himself a victim of undeserved hatred, defamation, and abuse.

The other dangers are that some women kill their partner or the partner's new companion, or his children, or his relatives and show it as a suicide, accident or a robbery killing. Sometimes, women fake or inflict injuries on themselves, or use an accomplice, a relative or new lover, to frame her husband or partner. The most common behaviors are pressing false criminal charges, stealing or destroying property, snatching children, and engaging in bad faith litigation.

In divorce, husbands must treat their abusive wives with steeled resolve and the courts must understand this. These women cannot see and reason beyond them, so negotiation is impossible and mediation is pointless. Unfortunately, the legal process regarding divorce requires negotiation and mediation providing yet another way for these women to abuse their husbands. Husbands must not accept telephone calls, conversation, visitations, reconciliation, or appeasements from these abusive wives for this only bolsters their belief that they remain in control of their husbands. The courts must realize that these women have no limits and derive pleasure from destroying their husbands. Only unwavering firmness of purpose shows these women that their power has ended.

In a news published on April 02 2007, on front Page of Hindustan Times, Delhi Edition, it says that a Delhi High Court has said that that scandalous allegations without any proof made by spouses against each other in divorce cases constitute extreme mental cruelty and a ground for granting divorce. The Court has criticised divorce lawyers for instigating the allegations by their clients in most such cases. The court also said that lawyers were largely responsible for this worrying trend, criticising them for instigating most of the allegations by their clients. "Trial courts must guard against the tendency of lawyers to continuously embellish the case of the client by introducing fresh scandalous allegations as the case progresses. The judge must ensure that parties are made to stick to their original complaint. The rule should be particularly followed in matrimonial proceedings, where scandalous allegations made during the trial can themselves constitute cruelty," said justice S. Muralidhan The court was hearing a petition filed by a man seeking divorce against his wife on grounds of 'mental cruelty'. Raju alleged his wife Neha (names changed) was having an affair with her head of department. Both husband and wife are doctors. While Raju succeeded in proving Neha's extra-marital affair by submitting photographs and letters, the court was convinced that the relationship was irreconcilable after the wife raised countercharges accusing the husband of leading an adulterous life with his sister-in-law. But since she could not produce any proof, the court ruled this as extreme mental cruelty by a wife on her husband. In her original complaint Neha had maintained that she found her husband in the company of other women, but changed it later to "seeing Raju and his sister-in-law in a compromising position".
(Source: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=02_04_2007_001_017&typ=1&pub=47)

Hon'ble Mr. Justice J.D. Kapoor, High Court of Delhi, had stated in his order of Savitri Devi (Petitioner) Versus Ramesh Chand and Ors.(Respondents), dated May 19, 2003 that such a petition is misconceived and is being used as a tool to hold the entire household to ransom and jeopardy. Some excerpts of order are provided below:
20. It appears that the legislature was mindful of the fact and situation that this provision may be exploited that it defined `cruelty' and for that purpose "harassment" falling within the parameters of "intentional conduct" of such a degree that may either drive the woman to commit suicide or cause danger to life, limb or health or cause `grave' injury. Of course "health" means not only physical but mental also. But unfortunately, these provisions have been abused by the Investigating and Prosecuting Agencies and exploited by the women and their relatives to such an extent that these have proved to be most ineffective in curbing the evil of dowry as well as disciplining the husband and his relatives to treat the woman in human and humane manner and give the bride or wife proper respect and honour.21.Before parting, I feel constrained to comment upon the misuse of the provisions of Section 498A/406 IPC to such an extent that it is hitting at the foundation of marriage itself and has proved to be not so good for the health of the society at large.23.These provisions were though made with good intentions but the implementation has left a very bad taste and the move has been counter productive. There is a growing tendency amongst the women which is further perpetuated by their parents and relatives to rope in each and every relative- including minors and even school going kids nearer or distant relatives and in some cases against every person of the family of the husband whether living away or in other town or abroad and married, unmarried sistes, sister-in-laws, unmarried brothers, married uncles and in some cases grand-parents or as many as 10 to 15 or even more relatives of the husband. Once a complaint is lodged under Sections 498A/406 IPC whether there are vague, unspecific or exaggerated allegations or there is no evidence of any physical or mental harm or injury inflicted upon woman that is likely to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health, it comes as an easy tool in the hands of Police and agencies like Crime Against Women Cell to hound them with the threat of arrest making them run here and there and force them to hide at their friends or relatives houses till they get anticipatory bail as the offence has been made cognizable and non-bailable. Thousands of such complaints and cases are pending and are being lodged day in and day out.24.These provisions have resulted into large number of divorce cases as when one member of the family is arrested and sent to jail without any immediate reprieve of bail, the chances of salvaging or surviving the marriage recede into background and marriage for all practical purposes becomes dead. The aftermath of this is burdensome, insupportable and miserable more for the woman. Remarriage is not so easy. Once bitten is twice scared. Woman lacking in economic independence starts feeling as buden over their parents and brothers. Result is that major bulk of the marriages die in their infancy, several others in few years. The marriage ends as soon as a complaint is lodged and the cognizance is taken by the police.26. For ages the cruelty, desertion and adultery have been ground for divorce which were to be proved in civil courts. Now the police and that too its lower functionaries have been made the decision making authority to conclude whether the harassmentor the cruelty as brought out in the statement of the complainant wife is sufficient to put all the relatives including school going minor brothers and sisters of the husband behind the bar. Such was neither the intention nor the object of the legislation.29.To start with, marital offences under Sections 498A/406 IPC be made bailable , if no grave physical injury is inflicted and necessarily compoundable. If the parties decide to either settle their disputes amicably to salvage the marriage or decide to put an end to their marriage by mutual divorce, they should be allowed to compound the offences so that criminal proceedings don't chase them if they want to start their marital life afresh or otherwise. The past should not haunt them nor the hatchet they have buried should be allowed to be dug up and mar their present life or future married life.30.Lastly in view of sensitivity of such offences and in order to avoid clumsiness in human relations and viewing this problem from human and social point of view, and the law as it stands today it is required that the investigation into these offences be vested in civil authorities like Executive Magistrates and after his finding as to the commission of the offence, cognizance should be taken. Till such a mechanism is evolved, no police officer below the rank of ACP for the offences under sect on 498A/406 IPC and D.C.P for the offence under Section 304-B IPC i.e dowry death should be vested with investigation and where minor school going children are named, they shall not be arrested and be sent to the court for taking cognizance and futher proceedings. Their arrest ruin their future life and lower them in their self esteem. This court has even dealt with the bail applications and prosecution of children merely for the fact that their names also figured in the complaint lodged by the wife. In certain cases even grand-parents of the husband who are in their eighties and nineties suffer this traumatic situation.31.There is growing tendency to come out with inflated and exaggerated allegations roping in each and every relation of the husband and if one of them happens to be of higher status or of vulnerable standing, he or she becomes an easy prey for better bargaining and blackmailing.32. These ground realities have pursuaded this court to recommend to the authorities and law makers to have a review of the situation and legal provision.

An increasing numbers of cases of marital disputes are filed under the Dowry Prohibition Act in India. By this, the Authorities criminally make themselves accessories and accomplices to deliberate and malicious misrepresentations by the wife of every marital dispute as a case of dowry harassment by the husband and his family members.

How can the law Presume that the cause of marital dispute is invariably inordinate demands made for dowry by the husband or his relatives and friends? This is Prejudice, not Law! This is criminality, not Law!

Usually, the wife registers a false complaint with the police on assurances from her parents, lawyers and more importantly, malicious groups pretending to be public-spirited Women’s Aid NGOs.

There is also a trend nowadays of the wife’s parents wanting her to divorce on trivial disputes by making them into ego-issues or with the hope of seeking a better match and go to the extent of filing a deliberately false 498 A case against their 'damaad' (son-in-law) and many, if not all, of his family members, in order to intimidate and terrorize them to surrender to their unjust terms.

The law has no consideration for the husband and his relatives to prove other reasons of marital dispute, and for proving that the difficulties have been created by the wife and her unreasonable behavior and or demands.

The Law as it presently stands treats the husband and his relatives who have been blindly and maliciously misrepresented as dowry-maniacal demons as stepchildren with no rights and bereft of the rights and dignities that belong to them as citizens. As a matter of fact, the accused are effectively robbed, without a trial, of their status as citizens, until they can, at great expense and trouble to themselves, prove themselves innocent!

It is pretended that these amendments with biasness were enacted in order to “protect” the women against a widespread social disorder prevalent at that time. It was to eradicate the harassment and killing of brides (Dowry Death) for the demand of money, property and articles by their husbands and in-laws. But such biased and blind laws are bound to be misused in the corrupt framework where greedy and vindictive people along with government officials always looking around for an easy opportunity to misuse the system for their personal benefit. The Sec. 498A of IPC has very effectively proved over the time that how the law which was enacted with right intention of providing protection to the weaker section, but overtly biased can be excessively misused in the corrupt framework and environment such as India. As a matter of fact, these Prejudicial Anti-Laws target far more innocent women than men; the mothers, sisters, sister-in-laws, etc., of the husband. This law in-practice is against the sanctity and safety of most women, which can be reaffirmed by examining cases of accused women under the 498A charges. And despite the pious humbug of “Feminist and pro-Women NGOs” that agitated for these criminalities to be enacted, these satanic “laws” do not spare even minor girl children!

Not only do these Prejudicial Anti-Laws militate against humanity and justice, they also pretend to pardon the authorities from any responsibility to investigate allegations of false complaints made by the wife and her relatives, determine if wrongdoing was indeed committed and penalize these real criminals for the marital disputes and other crimes that they have perpetrated against the man and his relatives.

In the absence of a just and impartial investigation, the laws are massively and routinely misused and cases of Crime against husbands are rapidly increasing day by day. This law is proved as a murderer of family relationship, when more divorces and suicides of husbands are happening by its false implementation.

Supreme court in its recent judgment acknowledged and stated on record “The object of Dowry harassment laws are to strike at the roots of dowry menace. But by misuse of the provision a new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used as a shield and not as an assassin's weapon. If cry of wolf is made too often as a prank assistance and protection may not be available when the actual wolf appears. Merely because the provision is constitutional and intra vires, does not give a license to unscrupulous person to wreck personal vendetta or unleash harass men”.

The misuse of dowry laws and pseudo feminists’ propaganda is behind the destruction of many Indian families. Many innocent men have been insulted, put down, wounded, investigated, financially ruined, assaulted, humiliated, and emasculated by females through the unjustified legal proceedings for long enough. It is observed that trail in dowry harassment cases does not start for years when Complainant the Daughter-in-law absconds after filing false case and the husband & his family members would have to run after court for years together seeking justice. Such men have borne it with patience in the face of outrageous pressure when their children were snatched and given legal custody to vindictive wives. A husband is forced to pay for the upbringing of children when he cannot see or meet them. Grandparents, uncles and aunts are denied to contact their grand kids, nephews, and nieces.

In the settlement of most marital disputes in India, the child custody is given to wife and thus the husband has left no way for having his support system in future. By the time he gets the court decision on Divorce (normally 7 to 10 years, may be more), he has already crossed the marriageable age for resettlement and thus he looses interest in remarriage and making his family again. Due to prolonged court cases, a husband cannot remarry for long and thus he cannot have children at his suitable age when he could have provided proper care to his children, so the Indian courts deprive husband of his human right to have children for securing his future support. In such circumstances, the divorced husbands are bound to lead a lonely life when they are emotionally disturbed due to lack of family support. As, the cases of matrimonial disputes are related to the basic requirements of a human life, such cases should be dealt with utmost priority in courts, so that decisions could come at the earliest and the innocent lives involved could not be ruined. If courts cannot provide speedy justice in such matters, then they should provide other options that can be made available to fulfill the basic necessities of life.

In majority of matrimonial disputes, the sacred institution of marriage gets transformed into a profit making institution to satisfy the greed of blackmailers on the name of out of Court settlements.

The innocent, harassed and victimised husband can use legal safeguards against any misuse of laws by his wife. A husband shall do a police complaint mentioning blackmailing, threat for false dowry case from in-laws without forgetting to mention if she had left the house after taking jewelry, cash or others or whatever be the situation. Recording of husband's conversations can also be done through miniature recording devices which would help to prove his innocence to police and court. A husband shall write a detailed statement with every detail about his innocence to police commissioner with copies to SHO, SSP, SP of his local police station, ACP, DSP, IG and a copy to ACP and relevant police officers of wife’s local police station. He shall state in his document mentioning Blackmailing threatening and instances of cruelty by wife etc., that he including parents and relatives are under threat of falsely implicating in Dowry related and other criminal cases. A complaint in police station can be filed on basis of evidence. If it’s not possible then sends the documents through registered post, and move to court to register the same under criminal procedure 156(3), for necessary investigation. A criminal case in court under 156(3) under section 200 of CrPC can be filed, with reference to police complains.
Cases to be filed against fraudulent and cruel wife:
1st: Case on sections 191, 192, 193, 196 and 209 of I.P.C, ie. 191. Giving false evidence, 192. Fabricating false evidence, 193. Punishment for false evidence, 195. Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of offence punishable with imprisonment for life or imprisonment, 196. Using evidence known to be false, 199. False statements made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence, 200. Using as true such declaration knowing it to be false, 209. Dishonestly making false claim in Court.
2nd: Case u/s 211 of I.P.C.: 211. False charge of offence made with intent to injure. IPC 211 is applicable which states that the wife is liable for imprisonment up to 7 years (as in case of 498A). Filing false CRIMINAL case attracts the SAME punishment (as for the criminal case for the accused) for the COMPLAINANT.
3rd: Separate case : Charging 120 B of I.P.C.,463, 464, 465, 466, 468, 469, 471 r/w 34 of I.P.C. : 120B. Punishment of criminal conspiracy, 463. Forgery, 464. Making a false document, 463. Forgery, 464. Making a false document, 465. Punishment for forgery, 466. Forgery of record of court or of public register, etc, 468. Forgery for purpose of cheating, 469. Forgery for purpose of harming reputation, 471. Using as genuine a forged document.
4th: Case under section 340 Cr.P.C: Wrongful confinement. Cases under section 199, 200, 205 to 211 IPC are to be taken up by courts themselves(as per 195 and 340 of Criminal procedure code, but supreme court has set some bar which allows private party to put a case under section 199, 200, 205 to 211 IPC). The judge can take up the false information case by himself, on base of an application u/s 340 Cr.PC, this would carry more gravity since its a case initiated and executed by the judge. But if the respective courts do not take up these cases (which is usually the case) then file for private cases under sections 199, 200, 205 to 211 IPC (citing the bar Supreme court has set, enabling private parties to initiate such cases.
5th: 100[182. False information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person, 389. Putting person in fear or accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion, 418. Cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to person whose interest offender is bound to protect, 415. Cheating, 499. Defamation, 500. Punishment for defamation, 503. Criminal intimidation.
6th: Section 190 of Cr.P.C. Cognizance of offences by Magistrates allows to file a complaint in front of the magistrate with all the evidences which can prima facie prove that the case against you is the false one.

In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court has ruled that lodging false dowry complaints against men amounts to cruelty and can be a ground for dissolution of marriage. The court granted divorce to a man who alleged mental cruelty by his wife. With this order, Justice O P Dwivedi disposed of a four-year-old petition in which a woman had challenged a lower court’s order permitting divorce to the husband. The wife admitted during the proceedings that she had filed a false case of dowry against her husband, in-laws and their relatives in Meerut. As a result of the false complaint, the husband and relatives were in jail for 10 days.

As a matter of fact, these gender biased “laws” in favor of women were deliberately and maliciously created with support of few feminists and women organizations funded by international organizations who had specific intention of targeting men and providing an “assassin’s weapon” to mischievous wives, and they are deliberately and maliciously worded in such a manner that misuse of them is not abuse but the norm! This kind of prejudice of feminist groups and their supporters in government has not stopped, as they are continuously making biased laws that are easy to misuse against husband and his family members, as male sex is particularly targeted and his women relatives are deliberately ignored, just for making easy money from them.

Recently the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act, 2005 was enacted on 26th of Oct., 2006, against which many courts including the Supreme Court of India, have ordered that it is a poorly drafted law. In a country like India, where the institution of marriage is considered sacred and survives on mutual understanding and respect, the Domestic Violence Act is uncalled for. It is largely opposed by the public who is scared of its gross misuse against family members that could prove as a anti-male, anti-social and anti-national act. It is anticipated that it would create unrest in every household when the wife would threaten the other cohabiting members for getting them arrested in a false complaint over trivial matters of dispute that could have been solved amicably. It is suspected is would act like the Weapon of Mass Destruction of Indian marriages.

The Domestic Violence Bill provides all women in the domestic relationship, whether marriage or live-in, a right to seek legal action against her male partner if she perceives her male partner's conduct is a form of domestic violence. If the complaint is lodged, a protection officer, predominantly a female, will pass restraining orders and give a second chance to reconcile. If the woman complains yet again, the male partner, irrespective of his family background and social status, will be convicted with one-year imprisonment and fine of Rs. 20,000/- without any further enquiry. The bill extends to live-in relationships too and also includes relationship between girlfriend and boyfriend.

The various forms of Domestic Violence are as follows:
(a) Harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well being, whether mental or physical, of the aggrieved person (woman) or tends to do so and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse; or
(b) Harasses, harms, injures or endangers the aggrieved person (woman) with a view to coerce her or any other person related to her to meet any unlawful demands for any dowry or other property or valuable security; or
(c) Has the effect of threatening the aggrieved person (woman) or any person related to her by any conduct mentioned in clause (a) or clause (b); or
(d) Otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or mental, to the aggrieved person (woman).

Explanations:
(i) "physical abuse" means any act or conduct which is of such a nature as to cause bodily pain, harm, or danger to life, limb, or health or impair the health or development (‘development’ is an equivocal term open to any sort of interpretation) of the aggrieved person and includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force;

(ii) "sexual abuse" includes any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity of woman (define ‘dignity’. Dignity is unrelated to the gender of a person. It is overall character, noble qualities and moral values of a person that makes a person dignified. Generalizing that all women are dignified is incorrect and unjustifiable);

(iii) "verbal and emotional abuse" (verbally, women are much more vicious than men) includes- (a) insults, ridicule (define ridicule), humiliation, name calling (there is endless scope of misuse in ‘name-calling’) and insults or ridicule (which woman has never ever humiliated, ridiculed and insulted a man? There are so many women who have humiliated the man by calling him ‘napoonsak’, meaning impotent. Why is this not an emotional abuse to men?) specially with regard to not having a child or a male child; and (b) repeated threats to cause physical pain to any person in whom the aggrieved person is interested.(interested? What is this mean? The aggrieved person could be interested in anybody, boyfriend, lover. That means the man should do nothing to the boyfriend/lover of the woman, just keep quiet and let her enjoy adultery)

(iv) "economic abuse" includes- (a) deprivation of all or any (define ‘any’) economic or financial resources to which the aggrieved person is entitled under any law or custom (custom? What is a custom? There are thousands of different customs in the country) whether payable under an order of a court or otherwise or which the aggrieved person requires out of necessity including, but not limited to (not limited to? What is this mean? Something beyond necessity? That is luxury), household necessities for the aggrieved person and her children (her children? “Her”. Did she give birth to a child without the help of a man? Can a woman produce sperms on her own?), if any, Streedhan, property, jointly (jointly?) or separately owned by the aggrieved person, payment of rental related to the shared household and maintenance; (b) disposal of household effects, any alienation (what is ‘any’ alienation?) of assets whether movable or immovable, valuables, shares, securities, bonds and the like or other property in which the aggrieved person has an interest (interest? What is this mean? This means that the assets moveable or immoveable, valuables, shares, securities, bonds and the like or other property may not be in her name but if she has some “interest” (who will not have ‘interest’ in money?) she has the right to possess it legally) or is entitled to use by virtue of the domestic relationship or (or?) which may be reasonably required (reasonably required meaning?) by the aggrieved person or her children (again ‘her’ children?) or her stridhan or any other property jointly (jointly? If the man possesses the property but the title is jointly shared, still the property, wholly and solely, belongs to the woman only) or separately held by the aggrieved person; and (c) prohibition or restriction to continued access to resources or facilities which the aggrieved person is entitled to use or enjoy (enjoy? She may like to enjoy anything. Her demands could be anything from a handkerchief to a sports car) by virtue of the domestic relationship including access to the shared household.

It violates men’s rights on an astronomical level. The important point to be noted is that this bill does not protect men, as it does not provide any legal protection to men. According to it, an aggrieved Person is a woman. It is an absolutely incorrect assumption that a man can never be a victim of domestic violence. If they really like to protect the victim from domestic violence, then why a man can’t complain against his wife when he is a victim of domestic violence? Only women have the right to complain and seek legal action against their male partner. Even if the male partner is a victim of domestic violence, he has no right to complain. When the woman will complain of domestic violence, prima facie, the complaint will be treated as true and genuine. It will be the responsibility of the accused, the male partner, to prove his innocence. After the first complain, the Protection officer will issue a final warning after which the male partner could be imprisoned for one year if the woman decides to complain again. After the first complaint, the male partner will be under constant threat of getting convicted and will do anything the woman tells him to do.

As the mental harassment is a relative term, even if the male partner hasn't harassed the woman, she has the right to accuse the male partner of domestic violence. Harassment is defined in the bill from the woman's point of view only. Just a mere petty argument within a relationship, which is an acceptable and general phenomenon, can be called harassment. If the male partner is cruelly nagged and decides to defend himself, the conduct of the male partner will be treated as a form of domestic violence, which will be a punishable crime. Women's vicious nagging has drove thousands of men to commit suicide. It may be a case wherein if a male partner not living on the woman's terms, the male partner will be accused of committing a crime. Whatever the woman says, the male partner has to do it. If he doesn't do what the woman says, he will be punished legally. Be henpecked or be handcuffed.

Economic abuse is a relative term. If a male partner refuses to pay exorbitant monetary demands of the woman, she can accuse him of domestic violence. Not meeting her extravagant monetary demands is a punishable crime. She can demand any amount of money, and refusing her, will invite legal action. Her extortion is legal after this Bill. When any property is held by the male partner and if the woman has any "interest" in the property, the woman has to right to demand what she wants and not giving her will invite imprisonment.

Verbal and emotional abuse is a relative term. A male partner if resists of getting brutally nagged by the woman, he will be accused of subjecting the woman to verbal and emotional abuse. A woman is free to abuse their male partner verbally and emotionally. But for the male partner to even defend himself, it is a crime. If a male partner decides to answer back, he is committing a crime. Lack of unconditional obedience from the male partner is a punishable crime.

If the male partner requests to the woman to make love when the woman is not in the mood, the male partner is committing a crime. If the woman demands sex from the male partner and he refused because he is not in the mood, the male partner is said to be sexually abusing the woman. The male partner must satisfy the woman sexually as and when she likes it. When the woman is not interested in having sex with him or forces him to have sex with her when he doesn't want to, the male partner cannot complain of sexual abuse.

In every possible ways, the woman can legally control the male partner. Not allowing the woman to control the male partner, the male partner is committing a legal crime according to this Bill. The male partner will be arrested if he slightly deviates from the command given by the woman. Even if the male partner has ended the relationship with a woman in the past, the woman can still dig out the grave and complain against the male partner of domestic violence, which is usually done to take revenge. Since the protection officer will be a female, the male partner will be threatened of imprisonment if he does not do what his female partner tells him to do.

Monetary relief means the compensation, which the Magistrate may order the husband/man to pay to the woman, at any stage to meet the expenses incurred and the losses suffered by the woman as a result of domestic violence. How will the Magistrate assess the amount of expenses incurred and loss suffered by the woman? Maybe there was no expense incurred or loss suffered at all but she can still demand any exorbitant price from the husband/man. Who will not take advantage of the situation where she is given the “so-called rights” to make any demands as she wishes?

Shared household means a household where the woman lived or at any stage. It means that that a woman can complain against a man even after the relationship has ended. Now this is a weapon to take revenge when she has lived in a domestic relationship either singly or along with the husband/man. If she has lived singly then how did they lived in a domestic relationship, and if they lived then how did they shared their household? And includes such a household whether owned or tenanted either jointly by the aggrieved person and the respondent, or owned or tenanted by either of them in respect of which either the aggrieved person or the respondent or both jointly or singly have any right, title, interest or equity and includes such a household which may belong to the joint family of which the respondent is a member, irrespective of whether the respondent or the aggrieved person has any right, title or interest (interest? Legal title is understandable. What about interest? This is clearly encouraging women to demand anything they like that is possessed by the man legally. All they need is an ‘interest’ in the property of the man, and the law will take care of it, and there goes the property from the hands of the man to the woman) in the shared household.

Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every woman (every?) in a domestic relationship shall have the right to reside in the shared household, whether or not she has any right (she doesn’t have any right but she has the right), title or beneficial interest in the same (Doesn’t matter if she has no right or title to the property, but she has the power to kick the man out of the house legally)

The aggrieved person shall not be evicted or excluded from the shared household (that means even if the live-in relationship ends, the man has to gift his own house to the woman or else be convicted of domestic violence) or any part of it (any part of it?) by the respondent save in accordance with the procedure established by law

The Magistrate may, after giving the aggrieved person and the respondent an opportunity of being heard and on being prima facie satisfied that domestic violence has taken place or is likely to take place, pass a protection order in favour of the aggrieved person and prohibit the respondent from-
(a) committing any act of domestic violence;
(b) aiding or abetting in the commission of acts of domestic violence;
(c) entering the place of employment of the aggrieved person (workplace?) or, of the person aggrieved is a child, its school or any other place frequented by the aggrieved person;
(d) attempting to communicate in any form, whatsoever, with the aggrieved person, including personal, oral or written or electronic or telephonic contact (that means after the complaint is made, the man has no rights to communicate with the woman. Women organsations were babbling that this law will not break families. How obvious!);
(e) alienating any assets, operating bank lockers or bank accounts used or held or enjoyed (enjoyed? Women love to enjoy like a freeloader) by both the parties, jointly by the aggrieved person and the respondent or singly by the respondent (singly also? The assets, bank lockers or bank accounts singly possessed by the man, actually belongs to the woman), including her stridhan or any other property held either jointly by the parties or separately by them without the leave of the Magistrate;
(f) causing violence to the dependants, other relatives or any person who give the aggrieved person assistance from domestic violence;
(g) committing any other act as specified in the protection order.

Residence orders:
(1) While disposing of an application under sub-section (1) of section 12, the Magistrate may, on being satisfied that domestic violence has taken place, pass a residence order -
(a) restraining the respondent from dispossessing or in any other manner disturbing the possession of the aggrieved person (who will declare that the possession belongs to the woman?) from the shared household, whether or not the respondent has a legal (even if the man has a legal title on his possession, he has no right over his own possession) or equitable interest (interests of women is take care of, not the interest of men) in the shared household;
(b) directing the respondent to remove himself from the shared household; (that means even if the house belongs to the man, he can still be kicked out of the house legally by the woman and then the house will be in the possession of the woman legally)
(c) restraining the respondent or any of his relatives from entering any portion of the shared household in which the aggrieved person resides; (the family members of the man is not allowed to live together or even visit the house if the woman does not like it. This is the dream of all women so that she can easily control the life of the man. Women organsations aren’t saying that this law will deprive men of their own family love)
(d) restraining the respondent from alienating or disposing off the shared household or encumbering the same; (even if the house or part of the house belongs to the man, he has no right to dispose it off because it actually belongs to the woman. Men possesses nothing, absolutely nothing)
(e) restraining the respondent from renouncing his rights (rights? This bill has left men with no rights, how will he renounce his rights when he has no rights left?) in the shared household except with the leave of the Magistrate; or
(f) directing the respondent to secure same level of alternate accommodation for the aggrieved person as enjoyed (enjoyed?

Women just want to have fun at the cost of a man’s life) by her in the shared household or to pay rent for the same, if the circumstances so require: (that means even after the relationship (marriage or live-in) ends, the man has to give an alternate accommodation or pay rent so that the woman continues to enjoy her life even after the man goes bankrupt. This is good way to buy a house. Get married or get into a live-in relationship and break-up; the law will force the man to gift a new house to the woman)
Custody orders:
Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the Magistrate may, at any stage of hearing of the application for protection order or for any other relief under this Act grant temporary custody of any child or children to the aggrieved person or the person making an application on her behalf and specify, if necessary, (if necessary? What does this mean?) the arrangements for visit of such child or children by the respondent: Provided that if the Magistrate is of the opinion that any visit of the respondent may be harmful to the interests of the child or children (yes, men are worse than animals who can hurt their own child), the Magistrate shall refuse to allow such visit.

Compensation orders:
In addition to other reliefs as may be granted under this Act, the Magistrate may on an application being made by the aggrieved person, pass an order directing the respondent to pay compensation and damages for the injuries, including mental torture and emotional distress, (now there have established a monetary price to mental torture and emotional distress. This monetary price will extend to the man’s insolvency. Get married or get into a live-in relationship and complain of domestic violence and get very rich) caused by the acts of domestic violence committed by that respondent, Upon the sole testimony of the aggrieved person, the court may conclude that an offence under sub-section (1) of section 31 has been committed by the accused. (The man has no right to prove himself innocent. Any false testimony of the woman is considered true and genuine, by default. Women organizations say that this law will not be misused. What a joke!)

There are no precautions. One, who has the eye of reasoning the legal phrases used in Domestic Violence Bill, will understand that is bill is all-inclusive and comprehensive, and there is no escape. It is highly impressively drafted which displays cruel intent and malicious design of the women organizations. Perhaps a team of female legal experts have work very hard to draft such a all-inclusive law to totally paralyze men legally. This Bill has been formed considering every possible situation present in the society. There are absolutely no loopholes left for male partner to escape even if he is innocent. This isn't a protective law; this is a license to destroy men.

Now let us ask this question again. Is Domestic Violence Bill will “Only” protect women from domestic violence? No. This bill is impressively drafted to legally terrorize, blackmail, control, and ruin a man in the name of protective laws for women. The agenda of protecting women is so blown out of proportion that apparently nobody is realizing that in this process, men’s constitutional rights are getting violated in extreme. Would you marry or allow anybody to marry a woman when such laws are available with the woman? It is suicidal.

The domestic violence law is like a Taliban law, the only difference is that the Taliban regime used it against their women, and here, it will be misused to pester men. Once a man becomes a husband in India, as per law, he turns into a dormant violent man and is a suspected criminal. There are overtly biased and stringent laws to dictate the dos and don’ts to a husband, but unfortunately, there is nothing in the hands of the husband to safeguard himself against his wife's nefarious intentions. It seems that the possibility of the husband being harassed by the wife has been is deliberately ignored by the lawmakers. Why are all the laws coined against the husbands only? With loopholes, the law would work as an AK47 in the hands of unscrupulous women. May be there are ulterior motives behind introducing this prejudiced law. The people behind this should be held responsible for disintegrating the Indian society and for spreading and supporting gender based hatred and laws.

The problem of domestic violence against women is more in rural and economically backward community than in urban homes. It is very unlikely that an educated husband from an urban family comes home drunken and beats his wife daily or harasses her to demand dowry and money. Rather cruel wives with the support of their parents and relatives who bribe and influence the officials falsely fabricate such complaints. The statistics of past 5 years show that how the law of 498A was increasingly used in cities like Delhi and Hyderabad and how it was barely used in remote and rural places as most of such cases were filed by educated and well aware women just to blackmail their husbands. But, the law assumes wife as a victim in almost every household situation, but there is nothing to stop or undermine a torture to a husband by his wife in India. Unfortunately, the wives are the recipients of sympathy of the masses in the name of dowry harassment victim.

The men and women who support implementation of such laws are mostly unaware of their misuse against the family ethos and peace, when they support the spirit of such laws that aims to give relief to a justified victim. The most of women organizations, NGOs, police and lawyers are always hesitant to openly talk about misuse of laws as it supports their livelihood in one form or the other. Police and lawyers get a hefty amount of money from wives as their share of commission out of alimony given by their husbands and Women Organizations and NGOs survive on Millions of Rupees of funds provided by government and international agencies for the agenda of dowry harassment and women development and care.

Above all, most lawyers and legal experts strongly feel that marital discord is a personal matter and cannot be solved in the courts. It is hard to predict if the new law will help in providing justice and rights of the deprived ones, but it is really concerned that it may become a threat to the Indian culture, which should have implemented with the provisions of counterchecks. As the National Commission of Women (NCW) and Dept. for Women and Child have admitted misuse of 498A, they should have made the new law quite balanced to take care of its misuse. The counterchecks could have been such as the existence of a law for redressing husband's abuse and to report law misuse to the government, NCW and Women and Child department for further action against the scrupulous women.

The government shall establish a Special Cell for Reporting the Misuse of Law against Husband and Family, which would function in association with NCW, Women and Child department and Ministry of Home Affairs. It will not only help in taking strong action against the people who misuse laws but will also help in making balanced laws for saving the families in reality. A proper redressal should be made available for reporting law misuse by way of online form (on NCW or MHA website) and by establishment of helplines for husbands. Those who are advocating for implementation of new law for the women's protection, they should also be made accountable of any of its pitfalls. Until such framework is available, a stay should be issued for stopping the implementation of the new lopsided law.

While supporting Domestic Violence Act, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chawdhury told renowned TV anchor cum correspondent Karan Thapar in a private TV Channel interview that ‘It’s time for men to suffer’. It is a clear example of how political parties in power misuse their powers to coin policies for favoring particular sections of society, likewise anti-men laws for purpose of alluring women voters by doing propaganda that their parties are promoting policies and laws for women favor. But in turn, such prejudiced and false motives hit back to more women making them victims of laws, as today more women are suffering due to lopsided laws. Another gender-biased law of Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2007 is waiting to be passed in parliament soon, and according to many legal experts, it will start the legal extortion of employers and employees.

The laws that are made to provide justice to only a particular section based on preferences of their sex and relationship, thereby restricting others to recourse of justice, should not be expected of doing justice, but certain to be misused for doing cruelty on rest others who are out of similar considerations under the laws.

The dowry harassment laws are cognizable offences, in which the proof is not required for filing a police complaint. On the basis of statements of wife, the police can put all accused inside jail after arrest. But surprisingly when such offences are considered severe crimes, in such cases usually the complainant makes a compromise with the accused after filing of the complaint. Social workers and counselors have acknowledged that educated and smart wives of middle-and high-income group families, whose husbands can afford to shell out, bring most of false cases. These wives approach Crime Against Women (CAW) Cell or similarly functioning ‘Mahila Salah Avam Suraksha Kendra’ probably an NGO, for purpose of not to reconcile and live harmoniously with husband, but to extort money, blackmail their husbands and relatives, obtain their Streedhan back, negotiate huge alimony and get divorce by mutual consent. CAW Cell or Mahila Kendra would call husband for counseling until the girl's grievances are sorted out. If they don't achieve it, usually they one-sidedly insist on FIR registration by strengthening the dowry harassment case supported by false information while neglecting all facts of prevailing situations. Normally, the Enquiry Officer will be indifferent to what a husband would tell or show them as evidences towards his innocence, and all his sincere efforts to reconcile with wife would be totally disregarded. Places like CAW cell have become place of humiliation and harassment for innocent husbands and their family members who are falsely accused for dowry harassment by wife. It is vastly experienced by many harassed husbands that their wives were prompted and given false counseling and related legal information by women counselors at places like ‘Mahila Salah Avam Suraksha Kendra’ and CAW Cell to distort and mislead the facts of case for strengthening and creating evidences against husband’s family to support a false complaint. Thus such places are mainly working as ‘Terrorist Camps’ where prior training is given to cruel and fraudulent wives for ruining the innocent lives. Together, they strip off the husband and his parents for getting money by threatening that if they would not listen and agree to wife’s conditions, the family members will be inside the jail. All sort of illegal activities and money transaction happens there, which are generally not mentioned anywhere in legal documents, police records and other government records.

In one such case, the 17 persons of one family were arrested under dowry law and finally the compromise was reached. It is increasing corruption in police and society as people allege that police threatened to oppose or delay granting of bail unless the accused family coughed up fairly hefty amounts as bribes. Others allege that many lawyers encourage complainants to exaggerate the amounts due to them as Streedhan (woman’s property), assuring them that they would get them a hefty settlement from the husband, provided they get a certain percentage as commission for their services in coercing the husband’s family. The wife usually uses provisions of 498A in the hope of enhancing her bargaining position against her husband and in-laws. In most cases of settlement, wife withdraws her complain u/s 498a and gives divorce after getting a huge amount. So the laws are misused for extortion of husbands with the involvement of feminist and women organisations, police and lawyers and everyone is making money out of husband’s suffering and limitations due to biased laws. Such instances have increased when the Supreme Court has identified them as “Legal Terrorism”. In such cases, the Lie-Detector Tests such as Brain Mapping Test and Narco-Analysis test should be conducted on wife to get to the truth of story before a complaint is filed in police station against all family members. In cases of dowry death and severe domestic violence, when it is difficult to judge due to lack of evidences, such scientific investigations shall be ordered that may come handy for courts to derive conclusions for imparting the justice. After seeing the plight of increasing number of harassed husbands and their family members, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) DBCW Petition No. 2825/05 Arjun Lal Vs State of Rajasthan, was filed at Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur bench for demanding such facilities for lie-detector tests by police and state authorities which is currently under consideration. As earlier Yasmin Hazarika, for long in charge of the Crime against Women Cell (CWC) once said "We need safeguards. A massive, thorough inquiry is absolutely essential before a case is registered". So the centers like CWC should be asked for cases where they conducted thorough inquiry, and found out that cases were wrongly fabricated.

Sec. 498A lends itself to be easily misused as a tool for wreaking vengeance on entire family by wife, because under this section, the police can arrest anyone a wife names in her complaint, as bail in such cases has been denied as a basic right. Likewise, people allege that the police threatened to oppose or delay granting of bail unless the accused family coughed up fairly hefty amounts as bribes. Others allege that many lawyers encourage complainants to exaggerate the amounts due to them as Streedhan (wife’s property), assuring them that they would get them a hefty settlement from the husband, provided they got a certain percentage as commission for their services in coercing the husband’s family.

The wife uses the strict provisions of 498A in the hope of enhancing her bargaining position against her husband and in-laws. Her lawyers often encourage her in the misguided belief that her husband would be so intimidated that he will be ready to concede all her demands. However, once a family has been sent to jail even for a day, they are so paranoid that they refuse to consider a reconciliation under any circumstances, pushing instead for divorce. After the false allegations in 498A cases, and going through tremendous stress, harassment and cruelty done by imprisonment of the innocent family members, the husband straightaway rejects any possibility of taking back his wife. Thus, a wife ends up with a divorce she didn’t want and with weaker, rather than strengthened, terms of bargaining.

Several women’s organizations, with long years of experience in intervening in such cases, find to their dismay that their help was being sought by the wife in bogus cases to increase her bargaining power and to pressurize her husband. Several police officers also admit that a good number of cases are of dubious standing. Yet, wife sought a divorce alleging cruelty at the hands of her husband and charged him with being impotent - all so that she could coerce him into giving her a sum of money.

Many feminists think that Section 498A has indeed served women well and proved extremely useful as a deterrent. They argue that women are not in a position to see their complaint through to its logical end. But this is not to deny its usefulness in bringing the husband to the negotiating table. Since the offence is non-bailable, the initial imprisonment for a day or two helps to convey to the husbands the message that their wives are not going to take the violence lying down.

No doubt, some women feel compelled to use this method, to arrive at a speedy divorce and settlement of alimony because they feel that they won’t get justice through the civil courts, given their tardy and unpredictable functioning. But this in itself amounts to using the law as a weapon of intimidation rather than a tool of justice. In a good number of cases, least in metropolitan cities lawyers are actively distorting the spirit and purpose of the law.

The basic problem with the present laws dealing with domestic discord and marital abuse is that instead of providing effective remedies through civil laws, the whole matter has been put under the jurisdiction of criminal laws, with very draconian provisions to make their implementation stringent.

Many organizations argue in favor by saying that there are many other laws, which are being misused, so what if Sec. 498a is getting misused that makes a miniscule percentage. As per statistics reported by Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi, the cases related to misuse of 498A are not in miniscule percentage, which is reverse to the propaganda of feminists and many organizations. In year 2005, the cases convicted are 5739 in comparison cases acquitted cases of 24127, so it’s clearly evident that in a given year around 80% cases are found to be legally false out of total 29866 cases that were decided and given judgment. It means that the accused in 80% of such 498A cases were unnecessarily harassed who had to prove themselves innocent after going through tedious and prolonged process of Indian legal system, and after that many might have totally lost their social and financial standings.

Without discounting the vital aspects involved, how can we ignore the distrust that this law is creating towards marriage in society and how it has caused irreparable damage due to false allegations on family members who allowed complainant to live in their house and supported her living. The reason why the misuse of Dowry law is dissimilar to misuse of other laws is that in cases of other laws, it is hardly when the complainant and the accused lived together in the house of accused, had physical relationship and the complainant’s living along with their children were supported by the accused. In most of Sec. 498a cases, the husband under allegations allowed his wife to live in his accommodation and supported her living, so if he is dragged in any malicious prosecutions, then it would impact the future of his children, and other family members. Therefore, if the accused husband and in-laws were supporting the complainant wife, then any allegations on the accused shall be evaluated in context of matrimonial relationship and not as per other criminal laws where the complainant and accused don’t generally share a relationship. The misuse of 498A becomes vital when more privileges are given to wife than husband in Indian laws and there is no law to protect the harassed husband and his relatives, which makes it a completely one-sided prosecution without any control on misuse and injustice.

Due to the marriage relationship, the complainant and the accused have a well-defined history that needs to be properly evaluated and considered before taking any action on basis of one-sided complaint, especially when there is no Medical Report involved or the wife is still living. In most of 498A cases, the allegations include the simple statements of wife without any proof, evidences or Medical Report. Normally, women organizations talk of harsh penalties in Sec. 498A and providing stringent punishment to the accused when brides are killed due to harassment by husband or demand of dowry, but they ignore the fact that most of 498A cases does not comprises of such cases where wife dies. Such Dowry death cases are vastly different from 498A cases of matrimonial disputes that cannot be put in the same category, so it will be incorrect to correlate both. Both type of situations need to be dealt separately and in matrimonial cases, every matter should be dealt with very thoughtfully and carefully, otherwise it will be destructive to the marriage, family and society.

There may be some possibility that both complainant and accused would amicably settle their disputes to live together again, which gets diminished after the misuse of 498A. They have a mutual interest in their children’s future, to which both are attached and would do in their best capacity. If in a false case, the innocent husband and his relatives are arrested even for one day and go to Jail, then they usually seek the Divorce and deny living again with complainant wife that has become their enemy. The breaking of families means spoiling future of their children and heavy cruelty towards the family members. The misuse results in the breakage of marriage and family, which is by-product and unique it misuse of sec. 498A.

Also, in 498a cases, all the accused come from one family, so it’s the act of socially declaring the whole family as criminal, which amounts to a highest degree of defamation in case of its misuse. It is also seen that generally more than 5 persons are made accused in such cases when a vindictive wife includes names of all family members, just to use it as a tool of intimidation and blackmail. India is not the only country where family disputes take place; however, no country has laws, which empowers its police to arrest entire family and put them behind bars without an investigation. Even in case of POTA, only culprit goes to jail not whole family. So such allegations should be seriously investigated for truth before taking any action against accused. It’s a fact that this law has become a threat and destructive force to the institution of marriage in India. This law is eating the roots of very basic and strongest organization, known as “family”, in any country. Marriage is considered as the founding principle of human life in Indian culture and traditions, and when such misuse happens, it directly harms the trust in marriage; the result would be more divorces and separations. Soon all marriages will commence with distrust and those days are not very far when pre-nuptial agreements will be common or couples will prefer living together without any legal bond and commitments. In fact this law has harmed women more than it helped.

The rising numbers of couples are separating within a short duration of marriage due to the temperamental issues and mental incompatibility in between the husband and wife, when both decide amicably to leave each other. It is seen that the wife’s parents, lawyers and women counselors advice her to distort actual grounds for their separation for creating the case of harassed wife due to dowry demand, physical and mental abuse, for gaining large amount of money and property from the leaving husband. With large amount of money rolling in process in name of maintenance and alimony, the marriage is made the business of daughter for many parents and lawyers. It is like legalized prostitution through marriage related laws. Surprisingly it is happening more in the educated urban families who are well capable to maintain themselves and smart enough to mischief others.

The large amounts of alimony and maintenance awarded to wife by courts at the dissolution of marriages encourage other unsatisfied and mischievous wives and their parents to instigate separation and dissolution of marriage within its short course. It is observed that even if wife is well educated, capable to earn very good salary and have good financial support from her parents then also she demands heavy amounts from her husband just to get richer and to put pressure and harass him. The rewards in the laws should be provided that would encourage long-term trustworthy marriage relationship not as some financial contract and do not allow further disruption of families, homes and society. It is a fact that wives usually use the power of Section 498A to increase her bargaining power for getting large amounts as alimony and maintenance. The large sum of money available in the process encourages all kinds of mischievous acts including the misuse of severe criminal laws that spoil the golden time period of life, morals, faith, families, reputation, careers, financial status, children future, physical and mental health, valuable time and resources of courts and police. The marital disputes where 498A is registered should be taken as cases with irreparable damage to marriage and no possibility left for cohabiting. An example of awarding large alimony to wife proves fatal for many more families in society that is followed by greedy wives to ruin more marriages and families. In fact, divorce should be made easy to finalize within a time frame of 3-6 months maximum. The grounds like mutual consent, incompatibility and frequent quarrels, infidelity and denial of normal sex should be made easy grounds for divorce decree.

The laws dealing with matrimonial disputes should be made balanced considering both husband and wife circumstances, with a provision for very stringent punishment for their misuse to act as a deterrent. In cases of Crime against Women, complain is registered by wife against in-laws or mother-in-law, but Indian laws do not have equivalent provisions to deal with cruelty to a woman by her sister-in-law or daughter-in-law. So it is wrong to say that anti-dowry laws provide safety to women; instead they provide an “assassin’s weapon” to the daughter-in-law or ‘Bahu’. The fact is that around two out of every three women prisoners in Tihar Central Jail, Delhi, are detained on an alleged dowry harassment offence and similar situation is in the other jails throughout the country. The threatening, abusing, maltreatment, conspiring, inflicting physical violence against husband and in-laws as well as subjecting them to cruelty - physical, mental or emotional should be duly recognized and considered under a new criminal law.

The accused under dowry laws crime are rapidly increasing in jails across India. They are kept with hard-core criminals that severely impact their personality and thinking. Study should be undertaken in all jails about these prisoners who are prosecuted under dowry related laws. Our laws with loopholes encourage false complains by wives, as there is no such counter check to investigate reality of any crime informed by wife. In most cases, the wife files false FIR thinking that police case will weaken him mentally so under pressure he and his family would agree to her demands, if that is related to money, property or family related issues. In investigation, the police should verify wife's charges in front of both wife and husband during their reconciliation. Police should give chance to justify each others’ intentions and should double check the motive of complainant, otherwise once the husband goes to jail there left no chances to save marriage. Unless allegations are of very serious nature and highest magnitude, the arrest should always be avoided.

Innocent lives are spoilt when involved in lengthy legal proceedings and continuous court appearances without getting reasonable result. There are no repercussions on the wife even in a falsely registered case, as the wife gets a lawyer provided by government, a Public Prosecutor, and she is not required to appear in court except for her statements. Even in a false case, the husband and his family bear the brunt as the whole police “investigation” and legal process lingers aimlessly, which is itself a punishment for those who have never dealt with court and police in their lifetime. All family related matters should be dealt sensitively within the specified and minimum possible timeframe to minimise humiliation and harassment of old parents and other family members.

The tradition of exchanging gifts in the marriage is prevalent and practiced commonly in Indian society, which is accepted as a social custom. Under the Hindu Marriage Act, whatever gifts are given to the wife by her parents and guests are considered as ‘Streedhan’, that are her personal property. It is considered in Hindu society that daughter is gifted with a share in her father’s property and assets at her marriage. So the bride’s father wants to willfully and readily gift Streedhan to his daughter to increase his prestige and respect in society and in groom’s family. Thus, the husband is not the “sole beneficiary” who can be later accused of demanding dowry from his wife, as he by no means instigates the willful conduct of his in-laws. The Indian laws charge husband and his family for demanding money, gift or property in marriage that is termed as ‘dowry’. It’s difficult to determine whether the wife’s parents willingly gave the wedding gifts or whether the husband demanded them.

When the marriage turns sour, the wife could manipulate her marriage gifts ‘Streedhan’ as having been demanded by husband and in-laws who would be accused by misusing the law. She can complain of harassment and torture for bringing insufficient dowry and that her husband and in-laws were demanding more money, articles, or property. This entire story can be very easily fabricated by the wife as it does not require any proof or evidence of mental torture or whatever that has been said or done to her earlier. All these circumstances points out flaws in present laws related to domestic violence. So the wife’s complaint that she was harassed for dowry needs to be substantiated with other supporting facts of offence. The age-old custom of exchange of gifts that is a ritual in India cannot be easily eradicated by legislations alone, but by promoting continuous efforts and emphasis on education for a change in social values and family traditions.

Wives usually use the law u/s 406 of IPC related to ‘Streedhan’ for extortion. After the dispute, the wife usually claims an exaggerated list of jewelry and other items that were never given by her parents in marriage. In many cases, when the wife separates and leaves her marital home, she takes away all her belongings and jewelry including the jewelry of her mother-in-law also, which never belonged to her but later denies possessing them. So these laws should ensure that the Streedhan of mother-in-law be returned back to her and whatever is given to girl by her parents in marriage shall only be returned.

The concept of ‘Streedhan’ derives from Hindu religious customs that has another concept of ‘Kanya Daan’ meaning ‘donating one’s daughter’. The ‘Kanya Daan’ is performed when girl leaves her parent’s home after marriage, as she is, by her free consent, “given” to her husband, a custom mirrored in the Western custom of a father giving his daughter’s hand in marriage to her suitor. But in modern society, usually after separation, the wife returns back to her parents and ask maintenance from husband. In case of their separation the ‘Kanya Daan’ is revoked so husband would not be responsible to support or maintain his wife according to religious customs. ‘Kanya Daan’ also establishes the severe crime of wife’s parents of taking back their married daughter with the intention of obtaining a permanent separation from her husband after marriage. As per ‘Kanya Daan’, the wife’s parents should have no right on her after marriage so that they cannot interfere. Their interference should be considered as a breach of trust under the law for which they should be punished. As a thing or person is not allowed to be donated more than once by the same person, the father cannot perform ‘Kanya Daan’ a second time, which means that the girl cannot remarry. This reaffirms that the circumstances of separation in marriage, divorce, coming back of daughter to father’s home, providing maintenance during separation to wife and remarriage of separated wife are against the Hindu religious norms. As ‘Streedhan’ is given importance in the Hindu Marriage Act, similarly the concept of ‘Kanya Daan’ should also be implemented in the law. According to ‘Kanya Daan’ concept, the interference of in-laws in husband’s homely affairs should be made a crime and no maintenance should be awarded to a separated wife, which should be considered as crime for breaching husband’s trust.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 needs proper review as it has many loopholes that can be easily misused to further reinforce the already excessively malicious dowry legislations. The mental cruelty and torture to husbands and his relatives by wife should be covered under the Domestic Violence Act. The circumstances as provided below shall be considered under provisions: If a wife deserts her husband without any reason, or if she has an affair with some other man, if she doesn’t cook food and refuses to fulfill her marital duties, if she expropriates the husband’s belongings and valuables, if she threatens to commit suicide, if by her actions she has demonstrated that she has the potential of harming or injuring the physical or mental health of the husband or his blood relatives, then their safety should be ensured.

As in India, generally after marriage, the wife lives in a joint family in one house with the husband’s parents and other family members, all the situations and circumstances should be taken into account before drafting the rules of the game.

After marriage, she has to live with the present circumstances of house that she cannot compel to change as per her desires. She cannot compel her husband to live in a separate house away from his parents, or attempt to alienate his affections from them, or to abandon them and cease to provide them the daily needs and care. Such elder abuse by daughters-in-law is rampant today in Indian society and police and laws fail to give any security to those old aged parents.

The abuse of elders is generally noticed in Indian families due to conflicts in between parents and the daughter-in-law ‘bahu’. When the newly arrived member of family, the daughter-n-law ‘bahu’ misuses the laws to pressurize and dominates the house, it is a great cruelty, humiliation and harassment to elder members. The daughter-in-law ‘bahu’ demands to live independently with her husband in a nuclear family and neither she wants to follow any traditional customs of the house nor she wants to take care of her old and sick in-laws. Under the misguidance from her parents, she even orders the old and sick in-laws not to visit their son and if they do not comply then she threaten her husband and in-laws to get all of them jailed. Due to this, harassment and mental abuse of elders in society is a growing epidemic. The lack of any social security system for elderly people makes their situation much worse when helpless, old and sick people don’t find any support or place to go when everyone ignores them. Due to situation created by laws, courts, police and civil administration that supports daughter-in-law not parents in India, the feeblish and old parents are left alone to die without any medical, financial or mental support and the government and women organisations become deaf, dumb and blind to the cry and misery of these old parents.

Under the dowry harassment law, the daughter-in-law can book her in-laws in jail even when they had never lived with her. Even if the police know that the harassment allegations are false, still they are helpless and arrest the old parents. It is becoming a trend in India that in the fear of getting jailed, many parents have started disowning their sons. But, even that is not protecting them. The daughter-in-law wants to fully control her husband and demands that the old in-laws must not visit their son in her house and her husband must not visit his parents. Police officers at ‘Mahila Thana’ refuse to register complaints by a mother-in-law against her mischievous daughter-in-law. Many parents have been jailed who stood firm and were principled enough to oppose their daughter-in-law. Many mentally distressed and old parents commit suicide being unable to withstand shock, trauma and torture as their high morals, principled and well disciplined lifestyle had never allowed them to see such pathetic conditions in their lifetime.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted the abuse of elders with false police complaints by daughter-in-laws in India. It has specifically mentioned this injustice as a Legal and Financial Abuse in its report on Elder Abuse called "Missing Voices", URL: http://www.who.int/hpr/ageing/MissingVoices.pdf. Many judges including former Supreme Court Chief Justice K.N. Singh, former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice and NHRC member Justice Malimath have asked for changes in this law saying that the well intentioned laws are grossly misused leading to severe injustice to innocent old and sick people.

Women's Organisations and Human Rights groups have turned a blind eye to these atrocities in spite of the fact that most of them are women and old parents. The real victims of domestic abuse could not able to approach police or courts for justice but the urban power hungry selfish daughter-in-laws misuse these laws as a weapon of assassin against old and weak citizens who are helpless. The proper investigation of complaints is the only remedy to get to the truth. We fight for proper investigations by police before arresting and torturing innocent people.

Usually Mahila Kendras, women organizations and the police “Crime Against Women Cell” adopt the method of pressurizing the husband to sign an agreement that compels him to live with his wife separately from his parents and agreeing to her unjustified demands. Such agreements should be revoked by getting a copy and challenging them in courts.

[Note: When pressured to do so, one must demand instructions in writings to be taken to one’s advocate for drafting the agreement to protect one’s own interest. Once you have got a written instruction, write out a complaint to your local police station or to the Crime Branch with a copy attached and demanding offences be registered against the instigators as co-conspirators, collaborators, accomplices, instigators, abettors, etc., of the wife in perpetrating the crimes of ALIENATION OF AFFECTION from one’s parents, CAUSING ONE TO ABANDON ONE’S PARENTS, etc., all of which are serious crimes! If the police refuse to accept, send it in by registered post, and handover copies to the concerned higher officers. You can always demand for “Action Taken Reports” under the Right-To-Information Act.]

Suicide rates of married men in India are higher than females and their proportion increases with their age. As figures from Indiastat.com shows: for males in the age group of 30 to 44, the Suicide rate is a whopping 508 per 100,000 persons; for women it is 220. The Suicide rates among men in the age group of 45 to 59 are a shocking 1,812 per 100,000 persons and among women, nearly 550. However, among divorced males the suicide rate is 164 per 100,000 persons, but even in this class, among females the rate is only 63 per 100,000. While the suicide rate for separated men is about 167, for females it is only 41 per 100,000 persons.

These figures clearly show that more husbands are compelling to suicide after feeling helpless due to their disgusting experiences with the police and legal system. It is due to unbearable harassment, mental torture, disturbed family life, male bashing, financial pressures, etc. When the greater ratio comprises the males committing suicide due to their weakness and inability to withstand high pressures, then how the feminists are claiming the society as being male chauvinist prone? The families of such husbands who commit suicide don’t get any support, but if a woman commits suicide then feminists, women organisations, civil authorities, legal system and media would proactively come in support of victim’s family. Why are we ignoring a husband in marriage relationship just because he is male, so expects no rights, no care and support, thus making him even worse than an animal?

If someone misuses a criminal law like sec. 498A & 406 of IPC, who accuses the husband and his relatives with the motive of gaining hidden selfish goals, then in-effect it is a seven-fold crime:

1) Against her husband and his blood relatives,
2) Against her children if any, who will suffer due to their separation and tension,
3) Against the religious vows that she took during marriage to support her husband as a sati-savitri and sita,
4) Against the sanctity of the court,
5) Against the police & public administration who has supported her as a victimised woman,
6) Against society, the social system and values which tend to unconditionally trust and sympathise with her as a victim, and
7) Against womanhood which is in question due to her wrongdoings.

Thereby, the misuse of laws like 498A is an offence that should amounts to seven times the punishment provided in a 498A conviction.

The accused in a typical dowry law case are different members of family i.e., the husband, his old and sick parents (saas-sasur), uncles, sisters of husband (nanad) who could be unmarried, brother-in-laws of husband, sister-in-laws of husband (Bhabhi) and cousins.

Such a complaint must be properly checked for its authenticity that makes the whole family accused in a criminal offence under which the conviction rate is mere 2% of cases and when most end in compromise. In cases when a complainant who lived with them accuses family members, the problem needs to be resolved with discussions and the complaint has to be earnestly investigated for its authenticity before taking any step against family members. Due consideration should be given to family members who are respected and responsible citizens of society and who have no criminal record. All the family members should not be accused of criminal offence only on basis of the allegations.

The misuse of laws causes irreparable damage to victimised family members, which can be prevented by providing stringent punishment to culprits that wreck the foundation of marriage and thereby ultimately cause society at large to suffer. The contradiction appears when “mutual compromise” is reached between the complainant and the accused in most of 498A cases when the offences defined are of highest degree thus made non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizable. The statistics surprisingly show that accused u/s 498A of IPC (Anti-dowry law) are convicted to around 2% only.

The courts blindly insist on reconciliation neglecting the fact that after the intolerable aggressions and humiliations perpetrated by the wife, her husband and his relatives can no longer revert to a normal relationship with her. Judges do the great deal of reconciliation and compromise efforts during anticipatory bail cases of husband and family members and during the family court trials. They are also naturally distrustful of one who has shown such shameless miscreancy and are naturally of similar further mischiefs by her if she would live with them. It is seen that cases under section of 498A are repeatedly registered against husband i.e., second time, third time or fourth time with inclusion of severe charges in different sections of law related to crime against women.

It is pity, disastrous and unique to India regarding matrimonial disputes that a criminal case is supposed to be registered without any prior investigation despite the complainant and the accused had lived together for considerable period, when the accused provided financial support to complainant, made her available all kinds of basic life necessities and amenities, rendered her home comforts and place to live, made efforts for securing her future and career prospects, taken care of her at times, cared her children, given her blessings to be happy and healthy, showered on her love and affection, shared many happy and pleasant moments together and involved her socially, mentally and physically in daily activities. The documentary evidences to prove the above facts may help the accused, the husband and his family members in getting Anticipatory Bail from the Lower Court, Sessions or High Court. In matrimony, a husband usually provides the financial support, place to live, manages the household work and renders safety to wife and his children. He works hard for securing the future of his wife and children. But its unexpected that husband becomes vulnerable to be abused by malicious “laws” when he, his parents and other relatives can be imprisoned on basis of a simple unsubstantiated complaint made by his wife.

Most of such cases in which stringent punishment is recommended under law, are settled for a compromise. It means that the real purpose of law is not attained and thus it should be amended to take care of the circumstances and preventing its misuse.

498A of IPC should be amended to make it bailable, compoundable and non-cognizable to prevent harassment and torture of all family members by their arrest so the case should be settled within a set timeframe. The delay in filing complain in domestic violence case should be considered as a way of threatening the husband and family members by making false allegations and charges. The new laws should be well capable to handle such situations and to check upon the malicious intentions of blackmail and extortion.

Needless to say, the laws in their present state are a negation of the husband's rights in marriage. It’s not less than a blunder that such a situation has been permitted to persist for last two decades and not much public protest and awareness has come for remedies and reliefs against these crimes veiled as “laws”! It’s a shame to talk of such laws in a democratic country like India, the nation of Mahatma Gandhi, who fought his entire life against biased laws and unjustified laws for making them justifiable in the Indian society.

The Malimath Committee is ‘bothered’ by the offence being non-bailable and non-compoundable, which makes “reconciliation and returning to marital home almost impossible.” The report of the Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System was submitted in April 2003. Some of its excerpts are:
16.4.4 In less tolerant impulsive woman may lodge an FIR even on a trivial act. The result is that the husband and his family may be immediately arrested and there may be a suspension or loss of job. The offence alleged being non-bailable, innocent persons languish in custody. There may be a claim for maintenance adding fuel to fire, if the husband cannot pay. She may change her mind and get into the mood to forget and forgive. The husband may realize the mistakes committed and come forward to turn a new leaf for a loving and cordial relationship. The woman may like to seek reconciliation. But this may not be possible due to the legal obstacles. Even if she wishes to make amends by withdrawing the complaint, she can not do so as the offence is non compoundable. The doors for returning to family life stand closed. She is thus left at the mercy of her natal family.
16.4.5 This section, therefore, helps neither the wife nor the husband. The offence being non-bailable and non-compoundable makes an innocent person undergo stigmatization and hardship. Heartless provisions that make the offence non-bailable and non-compoundable operate against reconciliations. It is therefore necessary to make this offence (a) bailable and (b) compoundable to give a chance to the spouses to come together.

Mr. N.K Shinghal, a retired police officer, was commissioned to report on the functioning and implementation of section 498A and submitted the Shinghal Report on "Study Report on Crimes Against Women - Role of Section 498-A, IPC in States of Delhi & Haryana". The Shinghal Report states that: “Most of the police officers, barring a few at senior levels and the defense lawyers, considered both the sections to be not only inadequate, but also overtly biased in favour of women, leading to their increasing abuse.”

It is found that substantial numbers of false dowry cases are related to wives who are involved in adultery, but cannot be punished due to limitations in present Indian laws. On the contrary, wives use Sec. 498A against husbands as a tool to leave them at their own terms and conditions. Husbands find themselves in dilemma when the present law related to Adultery dismisses the adulterous acts of a woman, and makes man purely responsible for their combined adulterous act. As per law, a married woman involved in an extramarital relationship is legally innocent while the man who is having an affair with her will be committing a criminal offence, and could be imprisoned up to five years or fined or made to endure both under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860. This is not law but hatred, partiality and prejudice against men.

It is an equal responsibility of man and woman to engage in an adulterous crime when physical and sexual relations are made in between them with each other’s support and mutual consent, so the wife cannot be considered in law as a victim, but as an author or abettor of crime. In many such cases, it is wife who initiated and invited such adulterous relations with other man and made continuous efforts to engage in adultery for fulfilling her sexual desires, thus logically she becomes the author of crime, not the victim. It is pity that an adulterous woman cannot be punished for even the abetment of crime. Such biased laws come in support of wife’s adulterous behavior that would further increase the unfaithful attitude towards marriage resulting in decline of moral values in society. Both genders should be covered under preview of Adultery law, as both genders are equally responsible to entangle into any such relationship that challenges the laws and rules of society. Recently the Malimath committee report has recommended making adultery punishable for both men and women. Again, it is National Commission for Women, the ‘Rashtriya Mahila Ayog’ that has openly opposed the recommendations to make adultery punishable for women, which has drawn huge cry and criticism from various sections of society. Such instances that show false motives and intentions of the Commission should be enough to derive conclusions about its working.

The society, police and administration should recognize the fact that Domestic Violence happens to a man as well, which is ignored by Indian laws. Many men are severely assaulted by their wives when he is kicked, bitten, hit with a fist or object, being scratched, slapped, beaten up, and threatened with a knife, gun or other deadly weapon to be used against him. Sometimes husbands are worried about being attacked in sleep. Wife would also deliberately destroy or damage something of value and precious worth to husband. She may throw things at him or break objects during an argument. She may spend large sums of money and refuse to tell why or what the money was spent on. The wife would make it difficult for husband to know that where the important documents are kept. She may be extremely jealous and unjustly accuse husband of flirting with others or having affairs. It becomes hard for him to maintain relationships with other of his relatives and near and dear ones because wife doesn’t approve of them. She may stop caring about the children and house, stop cooking and would withhold sex with husband without any reason. She may force to have sex or made to do things during sex that make him feel uncomfortable and victimized.

A Wife does mental abuse by telling husband that that he is worthless, can not do anything right, can not have good money and life and she will leave her and does not want to live with her any longer. It hurts emotionally as well as physically. Continuing this pattern can result in depression, substance abuse, loss of confidence, and suicide of husband. It can also result in death at the hands of wife or by some other who is induced to kill him. The situation aggregates when she along with her relatives are continuously threatening for going to police station and filing false case against family to put them in jail. He shall seek a mental health counselor to deal with domestic violence concerns and shall never be provoked. He shall take a legal advice and insist police to record his injuries.

Many men stay in abusive relationships due to concerns of their children’s' future as they want to protect them. They fear leaving the abusive relationship because they assume the legal system will not grant them custody because they are a man, and fear that visitation in the hands of a controlling spouse will never be easy, or that they may never see their children again. They also constantly fear for reputation loss of their family in their community and society due their marital problem, so they are hesitant to discuss it outside their bounds. Generally, in the Indian society, those men who cannot contain their wives at their homes are not considered capable enough.

More laws should be made for providing justice to harassed husbands. If the husband died of unnatural death within 7 years of marriage, a case should be able to made out against his wife for conspiring for her husband’s death, and for mental torture and cruelty. If wife is given a large amount as alimony from husband, then she should give in writing that she would support herself and possibly any children from the received alimony so thereafter will have no intentions of marriage again in life to seek another financial support. If she marries again, the whole alimony should be returned back to her ex-husband with interest.

The basic problem with the present laws dealing with domestic discord and marital abuse is absence of providing effective remedies through civil laws, as the whole matter has been put under the jurisdiction of criminal laws, with very draconian provisions to make their implementation stringent.

Criminal laws like 498A have been massively used to put undue pressures on husband in cases that can be dealt with civil procedures. This make cases much more complex to tackle thus leading to delay to the final outcome. Marital problems and circumstances should be categorized differently to deal properly, effectively, carefully and in timely manner. Out of situations described below in different sections, the criminal law shall be enacted only in conditions from Section A to E; the remaining situations should be dealt with the civil court procedures only.

A) Death of wife or husband due to dispute in between them.
B) Wife or husband survived the life threat that is related directly or indirectly to marital problems.
C) Wife or husband often commits physical abuse, blackmail or makes threats.
D) Marriage was based on fraud and wife or husband wants to dissolve it because of this fraud.
E) Wife or husband is cheating the other, as in case of an extra-marital affair or any other misconduct and maltreatment.
F) Wife or husband demands from other that cannot be fulfilled.
G) Onerous and excessive demand for donation of wealth in any form demanded by one party from the other party as a prerequisite condition to the marriage, except by free and mutual agreement, and where “onerous and excessive” must mean more than a fair share of the other party’s assets as existing at the time.
H) One party being abused, physically or mentally tortured and harassed by the other party and his or her accessories, abettors, instigators, etc. who interfere maliciously in between them to alter their present state of living standards, family and cultural values, living place and family arrangements.
I) Attempt by external or third party to alienate the affection of one of the parties to a marriage from the other for whatever purpose and end, whether towards himself or herself or otherwise.
J) One party has abandoned the other without just cause.
K) Parties agree in writing freely to live separately for any reason agreeable to them.
L) One or both party seeks a divorce.
M) One or the other party is indifferent, refuses his or her affections to the other party without just cause or fails to fulfill his or her obligations and marital duties towards the other.
N) A marriage shall be considered Null and Void by the wronged party on the discovery of the following facts having occurred previous to the marriage and which the one party has knowingly concealed from the other: Previous dissolved or nullified marriage; birth of children; abortion or deliberate murder; abandonment of previous children; infertility or impotence known to the party prior to the marriage; infection with mortal or venereal disease due to the party’s previous promiscuous immodest adulterous behavior. These shall not apply when the party who committed these acts or who had suffered them, had disclosed them to the other party in writing prior to the marriage. However, the other party, on the discovery of these facts, may freely legitimize the marriage in writing.
O) A marriage shall be considered Null and Void on the discovery of the facts that a party thereto had not sincerely consented or that a defect of intention occurred thus rendering the union null and void by that fact itself.
P) Separated parties are desirous or being reconciled.
Q) A party will be entitled to a fair share of the assets owned by the other where the first party can show that the assets in question were increased due to her or his contributions to the life and well being of the other, subject however, to the a fair share of only those assets gained during the union.
R) When two persons have cohabitated for any period of time, it shall not be assumed that they are husband and wife, and no two persons shall be presumed to be united in matrimony, unless they have been specifically united in a certified public ceremony mandated or recognized by law.

It is seen that most cases of misuse of dowry laws are reported by urban families and wives who are well educated, aggressive and keep threatening to go to police and court with false complaints. Such wives are well capable of earning their own living, but still they demand heavy maintenance amount from their husbands on separation. It is sometimes even more than what husband can earn. The Supreme Court has also declared this malpractice as "Legal Terrorism" only after knowing that such incidents occur on a large scale. But as usual, the National Commission for Women denies any knowledge of such cases of misuse of the “Dowry Laws”. The issue is not of misuse of law, but its greater propensity for the misuse. It can only be controlled through proper channels like the women organisations, Crime against Women Cell and Police. Out of these, the CAW cell and Women organisations will undoubtedly continue to be biased and partial as they are exist for the wife’s benefit so they will be reluctant to act against her and to share any such data or case openly. And police would do without much initial enquiry with limited duties under the pressure and false propaganda of women organisations. It proves that false feminism has highjacked the police, legal system, government and politics in India, and husbands have no justice.

Due to lack of efforts for in-depth study, awareness of the true ground situation, and massive “Feminist” propaganda, there is a great misconception in society about Crimes against Women. Government statistics of cases related to ‘Crime Against Women’ present a false image as it also includes numerous false cases registered for gaining sympathy of law and other government authorities and system, which thereafter end in compromise in return of hefty alimony. These cases are manipulated to show the aggrieved women, but actual situation is just opposite that gets proven during the trial of cases. The complete picture of ‘Crimes against Women’ is produced by considering the judgment orders in their trials that show only around 2% conviction.

Behind the false propaganda are the women organizations and NGOs that are chasing big funds and aids in the name of welfare and cause of women and children. Due to the corruption in the system, organizations are getting easy money from government and other international organizations and they are surviving by doing propaganda on the basis of wrongly manipulated facts and data.

The media sometimes unknowingly publishes or promotes biased news sympathizing with the wife or daughter-in-law without verifying any of the false allegations. Such kind of irresponsible reporting would include full name of the husband and his relatives with other false and base allegations that causes irreparable damage to the entire family's image and hard earned reputation. There are many such instances when false information of dowry cases was published in newspapers. After such defamation of husband and his family, he can not work properly at his workplace or office.

Women organizations need to be accountable for their funding from government as such organizations are working as political outfits to fulfill their selective agendas that are not in the interest of society as a whole. In the name of women emancipation and empowerment, they are promoting anti-family terrorism by recommending new amendments in laws to make more biased laws that can be misused for blackmailing innocent citizens and furthering their agenda of degrading humanity. Society has a right to information how each of the activities of such organisations are funded and organized. With regular surveys and research, there should be regular reviews of laws that consider offences related to social rituals of marriage and family, in consideration to consequences of its implications. Any amendments in such laws shall be considered only after the proper reviews and feedback of all sections of society.

The laws that deal with ‘Crime Against Women’ are widely acknowledged as being overtly biased laws in support of the daughter-in-law alone. It is seen that such laws are made or considered for further amendments with strong recommendations and propaganda by the ‘National Commission for Women’ (NCW) and few prominent NGOs and “feminists”, but reviews and opinions of other sections of society, institutions and organisations are totally ignored and never considered by the government.

The meaning Of 'Gender Sensitivity' as per women organisations and feminists in India is as follows:
1. Adultery by a “Wife” is not a crime.
2. The filing of false cases (dowry/rape/domestic violence) by “Wife” cannot not be punished.
3. The complaining woman's mother-in-law, sister-in-law or niece from the husband's side are not liable to get benefit of women favored provisions.
4. Perjury, theft, fabrication, blackmail, extortion and kidnapping by women are not an offence.
5. Exposure of body-parts by women to entice/beguile men cannot be called exhibitionism.
6. Women can sleep their way up the corporate ladder, and they are allowed to lie, steal and fabricate without any penalty.
7. Crimes of passion (including murder) by women can be blamed on the hormones (therefore, beyond their control) and therefore cannot be punished.
8. Unless it is the case of a woman against woman, the woman who turns on the tears is always the right.
9. The bigamous woman should be rewarded (latest scheme by the women's activists), and not punished.
10. Any attempts by the man to expose the truth about an abusive/deceitful woman is an attack on her privacy/ modesty.

In a diversified and democratic country like India, it’s totally unjustified and insane to draft any law or any amendment, only on recommendations of persons who are not representatives of all social classes whose interests could be affected by these legislations. Without such general inputs and considerations of the needs of all segments of society, such laws can only prove to be biased, would result in greater injustice and chaos in society at large as they disturb the very basic unit of any society, the family.

It is hard to understand the disproportionate role played by the NCW in the making of such laws, which is not a representative of all sections, but is ostensibly a government organization working for A MINORITY SECTION OF WOMEN and not for all women.

Research studies should be undertaken in different sections of society for any amendment in laws or for implementing new laws that deal with family life, as it impacts each and every one of us.

A human rights violation is happening in this regard, and our administrative system is ignoring this fact, as they usually say: “we cannot do anything, these laws are such, and even if we will try to help the innocent people, the women organizations will abuse us all over”. So such is the nexus of these government funded women organizations that even the police and civil administration are fearful of them, afraid to raise the alarm.

It has observed though many Reports, Newspaper articles and Judgments given by many High Courts and the Supreme Court that women are massively misusing laws against husbands, a phenomenon that is rapidly growing.

An independent working agency at central government level should be set-up to review atrocities against men that go unreported due to their gender only.

An organization should be setup to undertake wide spectrum research for appraising the legitimacy of laws that provide “assassin’s weapons” to such unscrupulous women.

A Statutory ‘National Commission for Men’ or ‘Manav Aayog’ should be set-up to safeguard the rights of men i.e. Right for a livelihood, Rights in Marriage & Divorce, Right to Child Custody, Right to live in his property, Right to frustrate and deny unjust expropriations on and extortions of, his assets, Universal Right to the Presumption of Innocence until proven guilty, Right to prove his innocence, Right to provide for and live with his parents and blood relatives and dependents, including unmarried sisters, Right to terminate an abusive and injurious marital relationship and Right to have his grievances and complaints be heard, investigated and acted upon impartially against any other woman.

Expatriates (NRIs) gets harassed, tortured and blackmailed to give large amount of money as alimony and maintenance to their wives when dowry harassment cases are registered against them. Their plight is such that they can’t easily prove themselves innocent. Due to distance, they are unable to deal properly with the authorities and legal procedures to prove their innocence. These NRIs are harassed when their arrest warrant are released to Interpol and the Indian embassies without doing any enquiry. In some cases, Indian authorities ask foreign embassies to cancel their visa also. When they arrive in India they are arrested at airports as criminals, their passports are seized and they are prevented from returning to their livelihoods abroad. Some of them have severely suffered due to loss of their parents because of their mental harassments by police and court dealings. In such cases, the wife demands maintenance amount up to Rs. 50 thousand or even 1 Lac per month. This should justify the false case of dowry demand on husband who can pay Rs. 1 Lac every month as maintenance to his wife. They are not given child custody, whereas in west, around 50% husbands fight for child custody and win, whereas wife has to prove that she is capable to raise the kids. Due to this harassment, the USA State Department and the Canadian Government have already issued “Travel Advisories” warning their citizens against the misuse of 498A for extortion. International organizations such as the United Nations’ World Health Organization and Amnesty International have taken official cognizance of this malaise, which women organizations in India sedulously pretends to be insignificant or nonexistent! It is really unfortunate for India to depict such a horrific image internationally of the Indian Legal System.

It is unjustified for a wife to demand maintenance from a husband who is accused of a criminal offence such as 498A and 406 of IPC. The accused husband shall not maintain and support the same complainant, against whom he has supposedly committed the criminal offence. When husband files for Divorce (u/s Sec. 13) or Restitution of Conjugal Rights (u/s Sec. 9), wife subsequently files for Maintenance (u/s 24 or 125) in family court in addition to a false and fabricated Dowry Harassment Complaint (u/s IPC 498A and 406) at Police station. So, at one hand, the husband is facing severe torture and harassment due to false criminal charges by wife, on the other hand he is legally ordered to provide maintenance to his wife. Usually after 498A, wife would intimate the employer of husband about criminal case and husband’s judicial or police custody, to request for further action from their department. The persons under government employment have been suspended due to such moves of wives who don’t get their proper salary under suspension, but they have to abide by the maintenance orders of court to provide to their wives. In cases of divorce also, it shall not be necessary to give maintenance to the wife. The marriage is the result of a situation when both the bride and groom owe responsibility towards each other. As per the seven vows that take place during the Hindu Marriage ceremony, both take responsibilities towards each other. But after separation, both would stop being responsible to each other as both shall act according to their free will. After divorce, even when wife is not liable to fulfill any of her duties towards him, it is husband’s responsibility to provide regular maintenance to ex-wife. If wife is not bound after divorce, then why should the husband be bound to provide for the woman who is no longer his wife? And if she is capable to earn her living then why shall she ask extort money from the man who is no longer her husband?

The media exposure and the cosmopolitan culture is highly inflecting the behavior of men and women and so the marital relationship. The attitude towards marriage is rapidly changing all over India. Earlier they used to debate on joint families breaking into nuclear families and these days the discussion is on the nuclear families that are breaking apart further due to individualistic and selfish approach. It has to do with the impact of overall society on a human character; the ‘Sati Savitri’ character of sympathy, honesty, devotion, commitment, tolerance and sacrifice is no more a role model for the modern wife. It is evident from the fact that women constitute 55% of the primary petitioners who are filing for Divorce according to a recent story published in a national magazine. Today, wives are seeking financial security and demanding high lifestyle comforts, money, gifts, luxury, freedom, friendships, equal status etc from their marriages. This has made newly married husbands to live under great mental pressure to fulfill wife’s demands apart from doing high-tension jobs. Many young men are prone to much stress and responsibility today, when they struggle to establish their family independently at a much younger age while living separately from their parents due to their jobs.

According to the Report Of National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a total of 50,703 cases of Cruelty by Husband & Relatives were reported in the country during 2003 with an increase of 3.0% over 2002. Significant increase of 800 percent was reported from UT of Delhi over the previous year (from 135 cases in 2002 to 1211 cases in 2003). Nearly 16 percent of such crimes reported in the country were reported from Andhra Pradesh (8,167) only. The statistical data of Incidence & Rate Of Crime Committed Against Women In States, U.T.s and Cities During 2003 has the following conclusions: Delhi city has highest 2888 incidences in country, ie 14.8% Percentage Contribution To All-Cities, and has 22.6% Rate Of Total Cognizable Crimes carried out in Delhi. Surprisingly Kolkata has 725 incidences i.e. just 3.7% of all cities, and has 5.5% Rate Of Total Cognizable Crimes. Mumbai has 881 crimes i.e. 4.5% Percentage Contribution To All-Cities, and 5.4% Rate Of Total Cognizable Crimes. Bangalore has 1227 incidences, i.e. 6.3% of Percentage Contribution To All-Cities and 21.6% Rate Of Total Cognizable Crimes in the city. Hyderabad city has 1945 incidences which is the 2nd highest in country i.e. 9.9% Percentage Contribution To All-Cities and 35.1% Rate Of Total Cognizable Crimes. It shows the Delhi figures of 22.6% that is really exaggerated for which the real reasons need to be investigated from authorities. Cities like Mumbai and Kolkata have around 5.5% rate of total cognizable crimes. The great difference in figures of Delhi and these cities shows that the state authorities in Mumbai and Kolkata have adopted certain procedures.

To save Indian families from marital discords, self-help groups should be formed in every community, company and business. Promotion of awareness programs on ‘Pledge of not taking dowry’ among the youth should be done through phone helplines and Internet. Post-marital counseling should be provided to couples who are both working, living independently and feeling stressed out due to work pressure, other financial and family burdens. A joint declaration should be signed by both husband and wife that they have not taken any dowry in marriage, and so their problems are not related to dowry harassment.

To rectify the misuse of laws against innocent family members and husband, organizations like 498A.org have demanded from the Government of India, that:-

1. Stringent punishments for abusers of law – The punishment for misusing this strict law of Sec. 498A IPC should be equally stringent. Once a complaint has been found to be false, severe penalties should be imposed to discourage misuse of this law.
2. Specific directions and guidelines shall be issued to all police officers to launch prosecution against false complaint invariably. If it is found a false complaint, case under section 182 IPC must be lodged against complainant. The husband and his relatives shall be allowed to file complaint for cruelty by wife and in-laws.
3. Fair and Unbiased Investigation – All facts of case including evidences and related documents provided by accused shall be included in the Chargesheet of police. The list of ‘Streedhan’ of wife should be invariably cross checked with list of articles exchanged at time of marriage, commonly signed by both husband’s and wife’s side.
4. No Arrests unless absolutely necessary – An arrest on a criminal charge has grave consequences, both social and financial, for the individual. Unless there is irrefutable evidence to suggest physical torture, no arrests should be made. Also, senior citizens, minors (children below the age of 18), pregnant women and people requiring medical attention should be excluded from arrests. No arrest shall be done by police before completion of Enquiry. Arrest should be made only in cases which involves heinous crimes or anticipate gravest danger to the complainant under circumstances. Elderly parents and distant relatives of husband shall not be harassed by police in marital dispute matters. Arrest of accused should not be planned on Friday or just before Court holidays, so as to obstruct their rights to legal recourses, thereby denying their possibility of fair justice. Government employees should not face suspension due to arrest in such matrimonial dispute related frivolous cases.
5. In case of attempt or suicide by humiliated husband and In-laws, the complainant and her relatives who lodged the complaint should be immediately arrested for culpable homicide or at least abetting suicide.
6. Under the new Domestic Violence Act 2005, proper enquiry shall be conducted as per its clauses.
7. Speedy trial of cases related to marital disputes
8. Make Section 498A Bailable and Compoundable – The law should be made bailable and compoundable, unless grave physical torture is evident, to prevent harassment of innocent families,
9. National Commission for Family Welfare – We urge the government to establish a National Commission for Family Welfare to protect the rights of men, women and children and to work for the welfare of families and the society in general.
10. Gender Neutrality – All laws should endeavor to punish the guilty and protect the innocent, irrespective of the gender. We demand that the law be made gender neutral to protect the interests of any victim, be it a man or a woman. We insist that the gender specific words like “husband” and “wife” be replaced by gender neutral words like “spouse”.

The victims of misuse of laws can get proper advice and help from voluneers by filling online form at http://498A.org/victiminfo/ . More information is available on websites: http://www.498a.org/, http://www.mynation.net/, http://www.saveindianfamily.org/, http://www.pariwariksuraksha.org/, http://www.protectindianfamily.org/

FOR COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS, CONTACT:
Mr. Nishant Kumar
Phone: +91-141-2545804, 09352736000; Email: nkumar48@yahoo.com

************ THANK YOU ************
Disclaimer: These are totally writer’s personnel views only. Readers may have different opinion.

Report on Indian Marriage Problems and Issues

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Victims stories and related blogs

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Misuse of Anti-dowry laws in marital disputes to blackmail husband

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