Hyderabad: At last the apex court has started taking a sympathetic view towards husbands and their family members. Actually, this is nothing new as the courts over the past few decades have reiterated the same.
In 2002, former Hyderabad commissioner of police, M. V. Krishna Rao issued specific directions to all the cops under his jurisdiction to see that the husband’s family members should not be harassed till the investigating officer gets a written consent from the concerned DSP. Despite this, no body has paid heed to the direction and husbands and their families continue to suffer.
At a later stage, the AP police, in its official website, appealed to wives who wanted to file a complaint not to implicate the husband and his family. This clearly shows that there is a rampant misuse of Section 498A.
At one stage, Justice B.S.A. Swamy and T. Ethiraju of AP High Court gave a judgement to Parliament and the Law Commission in which they stated that educated women of this country are filing false cases against their husbands.
The Section requires reconsideration because there is a misuse of Section 498A. The real women victims who suffered at the hands of their sadistic husbands are also not getting justice. Therefore, in my opinion, the law, the relevant rules, directions and observations pertaining to that particular Section should be implemented meticulously so that there is no chance to misuse 498 A.
I am still apprehensive whether the concerned police officers and the judiciary will really take these directions of the Supreme Court and work for the proper implementation of the Act. Otherwise, this will be one more eyewash judgement which will be no use to the husbands and their family members.
There cannot be a gender bias in a wrong act. It is the same whether the victim is a wife or a husband. It is high time society and authorities implement this properly and ensure that the victim gets justice. Using the law for selfish needs is totally incorrect.
It is curious that the Supreme Court is more concerned about a few cases of misuse than about the significant protection that 498A offers to women.
498A, which was the result of a long movement by women and was hailed as a victory, that offered protection to women suffering from dowry harassment and domestic violence, is so casually overturned because there is a significant misuse of the provision.
The judgement says that there is a phenomenal increase in matrimonial disputes in recent years. It also says that the institution of marriage is greatly revered in our country. The fact that the section is a cognisable and non-bailable offence has made it a dubious weapon in the hands of disgruntled wives. The language of the judgement clearly underlines the prevalent bias that women have it too easy in this country and are complaining and punishing men, who harass them.
Mulayam Singh Yadav said that boys will be boys and cannot be hanged for rape (a minor offence) The judgement adds that the directions not to arrest will apply not only to 498A or Section 4 of the dowry Prohibition Act but also to cases where the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term may be less or extend to seven years. Further failure to comply can lead to departmental action and contempt of court.
We do not find such caution about the police powers to arrest or torture in other instances. It is as if we are rolling back to the dark ages and rape and dowry harassment can rule free. In the early days of the movement, we had a slogan that suicides in the family should be treated like murder.
We broke down barriers between the perception of private and public to be able to voice women’s suffering.
The SC judgement will indeed push back women slowly and irrevocably to the four walls, while law and justice roam free and fair for the men. It is a vengeance to women claiming their right to citizenship and freedom.
