DOWRY DEATHS

-An Ominous Ignominy for India

BY:1

1. Enrollment no. : course:

Page 1
 Abstract

The phenomenon of dowry deaths – of violence against young married women by their husbands
and families related to extortion for gifts – was vital in activating the women's movement in
post-independence India in the 1980s. Although the historical and traditional meaning of dowry
has changed over the centuries, the evolution of the practice from possibly customary inheritance
to extortion and violence is embedded in an increasingly consumerist society and capitalist
economy. Highlighted initially by the women's movement as a symbol of devaluation of women
and leading to major legal reform, analysis of the criminal justice system's response to dowry
deaths revealed that they obscured other causes of gender-based inequalities and violence against
women which are not peculiar to India alone.

Page 2
 Introduction

Dowry Death is one of the most hideous or gruesome and burning issues in India. There have
been Laws and Acts that have been enacted and incorporated by the legal system of the country;
also there have been campaigns and awareness programs initiated by the Governmental and Non-
Governmental Organizations against the Dowry Deaths and Dowry System in India, but in-spite
the presence of such initiatives the statistics on dowry-related deaths have only increased in the
country. Despite the rapid increase of the middle-class society and youth population, steps
towards modernization, enormous privileged economic development, better education system
and etc., there are still certain grey areas where the country is still lacking the growth and one of
such issues is the prevalent Dowry System and related Deaths, which continues to rise with time.
There is the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 which is enacted, and in addition the laws have been
made more stringent namely, Section 304 B (dowry death) and Section 498 A (cruelty by
husband or his relatives) have been integrated into the Indian Penal Code (I.P.C.) and also
Section 113 B (presumption as to dowry death) have been made part of the Indian Evidence Act
(I.E.A.) in order to eradicate or at-least lower down this heinous act of dowry system and related
deaths. This research paper has made an effort to scrutinize and evaluate legal provisions which
have been adapted and adopted by the Indian Legal System to minimize nuisance of Dowry
Deaths, highlight loopholes and along-with its betterment in the legal system & the society and
also to spotlight the available remedies as also how to further augment such remedies so as to be
beneficial to the genuinely aggrieved party. The hazard of Dowry system has become a serious
and unethical social stigma in Modern India even-though, the society and the population claim
themselves to be literate and educated. This is leading to repression, brutality and physical &
emotional cruelty towards women, further it also causes serious financial and emotional stress to
the wife’s parents and family members, conflicts in the marriage and in husband’s home. We
have such a society where it is a crime to demand Dowry either during the marriage or even after
the marriage, but this dreadful issue of Dowry System still exists in our society. The Dowry
System in India refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride's
family gives to the bridegroom, his parents, or his relatives as a condition of
the marriage2 Dowry stemmed from India's skewed inheritance laws, and the Hindu Succession

2. Rani Jethmalani & P.K. Dey (1995), Dowry Deaths and Access to justice in Kali’s Yug
Empowerment, Law and Dowry Deaths.
3. Paras Diwan & Peeyushi Diwan (1997), Law relating to dowry, dowry deaths, brides
burning, rape and related offences. Page 3
Act needed to be amended to stop the routine disinheritance of daughters. Dowry is essentially in
the nature of a payment in cash or some kind of gifts given to the bridegroom's family along with
the bride and includes cash, jewellery, electrical appliances, furniture, bedding, crockery, utensils
and other household items that help the newlyweds set up their home. 3 Dowry is referred to
as Dahej in Arabic. In far eastern parts of India, dowry is called Aaunnpot.

2. Rani Jethmalani & P.K. Dey (1995), Dowry Deaths and Access to justice in Kali’s Yug
Empowerment, Law and Dowry Deaths.
3. Paras Diwan & Peeyushi Diwan (1997), Law relating to dowry, dowry deaths, brides
burning, rape and related offences. Page 4
 Growth of Dowry System in India

The Dowry System in India is linked with the Marriage establishment. But unlike the present
time dowry was completely a voluntary gift in the ancient time to the daughter and her husband
which in present scenario has become conditional dowry. The ancient text and literature depicts
and suggest that marriage ceremony was one of the important rituals and one of the main
ceremonies in a person’s life, almost compulsory and binding for all the Hindu men in general
and all women in particular, but there is no mention of Dowry System in those texts and
literature. During the Vedic period, marriage was a holy bond which was blessed by the Gods
and Goddesses themselves and this holy bond could not be broken by any sort of human actions.
There were some very basic and simple rules that people followed for the consideration of the
marriage but there is still no mention of Dowry. Authors of literature dedicated towards the
writing concerned with dowry system growth in India show that in the past the Daughters were
not having any rights of inheritance and were denied of this right, only the son’s had the right of
inheritance and eventually, only the sons inherited their father’s property. In this scenario, the
parents of the daughter during the time of her marriage out of sheer love and affection used to
gift some part of their money and jewellery to her, which apparently have started and triggered
the Dowry System the country.

Page 5
 Dowry in Modern Era

Dowry has been a prevalent practice in India's modern era and in this context, it can be in the
form of a payment of cash or gifts from the bride's family to the bridegroom's family upon
marriage. There are variations on dowry prevalence based on geography and class. States in the
north are more likely to participate in the dowry system among all classes, and dowry is more
likely to be in the form of material and movable goods. In the south, the bride price system is
more prevalent, and is more often in the form of land, or other inheritance goods. This system is
tied to the social structure of marriage, which keeps marriage inside or close to family relations.

When dowry evolved in the Vedic period, it was essentially followed by the upper castes to
benefit the bride, who was unable to inherit property under Hindu law. To counter this, the
bride's family provided the groom with dowry which would be registered in the bride's
name. This dowry was seen as Stridhan (Sanskrit: woman's property). Also, an important
distinction is the fact that while the upper castes practiced dowry, the lower castes practiced
bride price to compensate her family for the loss of income.

In the modern era, the concept of dowry has evolved and Indian families no longer practice the
traditional Vedic concept of dowry. This is because with the passage of time, bride
price gradually disappeared and dowry became the prevalent form of transfer. In the modern era,
the practice of dowry requires the bride's family to transfer goods to the groom's family in
consideration for the marriage.

Page 6
 Growth of Dowry Deaths in India

Dowry Death can be defined as an unnatural death of the wife due to demand for dowry by the
husband and/or his family. Dowry can include anything from money to assets like jewellery,
movable and immovable property and etc. Women are either killed by the husband or his family,
if their demand, greed and lust for dowry are not fulfilled or the woman commits suicide because
she could not face the harassments anymore over the fulfillment of the dowry. It is also another
way to start or push the husband’s career or to fulfill the family’s demands to the developing
social materialistic requirements. It is a plain greed of the husband and his family to demand
dowry otherwise this heinous practice would have stopped long back. With passing years cases
related to dowry deaths in India are gradually increasing. Also, cases of cruelty towards the wife
by a husband or his relatives are increasing which is prominently caused by the demand for
dowry and wife’s inability to fulfill it. According to the statistics given in the NCRB Report,
2016 , total number of reported cases related to Dowry Deaths in the year 2016 were 7,621 and
total number of reported cases related to cruelty by the husband or his relatives to the wife in the
year 2016 were 1,10,378. India holds the highest number of Dowry Death cases in the World.
Another glaring issue that comes up with the laws laid down to protect women from this cruel
act is that misuse of the very same laws by the wife or her family to harass and blackmail the
husband or his family, which is also needed to be dealt with in a swift manner. . In 2012,
8,233 dowry death cases were reported across India, while in 2013, 8,083 dowry deaths were
reported. This means a dowry-related crime causes the death of a woman every 90 minutes, or
1.4 deaths per year per 100,000 women in India.

Page 7
 Legal Services Available to the Victims

With the increasing number of Dowry Death cases in India, the government has laid some
guidelines to deal with such cases and the laws have also been amended for strengthening the
legal system to protect and support the victims who come under the cases of dowry death or
cruelty. We have the Indian Penal Code (I.P.C.) 1960, The Indian Evidence Act (I.E.A.) 1872,
Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) and The Dowry Prohibition Act (D.P.A.) 1961, to protect
women from being subjected to Dowry Deaths or Cruelty arising out of disputes related to
dowry.

Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 :

The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 consolidated the anti-dowry laws which had been passed on
certain states. This legislation provides for a penalty in s. 3 if any person gives, takes or abets
giving or receiving of dowry. The punishment could be imprisonment for minimum 5 years and a
fine more than ₹15,000 or the value of the dowry received, whichever is higher. Dowry in the
Act is defined as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given in connection
with the marriage. The penalty for giving or taking dowry is not applicable in case of presents
which are given at the time of marriage without any demand having been made.

Criminal statutes – Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act:

The Indian criminal laws were comprehensively amended to include dowry as a punishable
offence. Section 304B was added to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("IPC"), which made dowry
death a specific offence punishable with a minimum sentence of imprisonment for 7 years and a
maximum imprisonment for life. It provided that if the death of a woman is caused by burns or
bodily injury or occurs in suspicious circumstances within 7 years of her marriage, and there's
evidence to show that before her death, she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her
husband or his relative regarding the demand for dowry, then the husband or the relative shall be
deemed to have caused her death.

Further, section 113B of the Evidence Act, 1872 ("Evidence Act"), creates an additional
presumption of dowry death when it is shown that before her death, the woman had been
subjected to cruelty on account of dowry demand. Section 304B IPC along with Section 113B of

Page 8
the Evidence Act have enabled the conviction of many who were not caught by the Dowry
Prohibition Act, 1961. Section 113A of the Evidence Act provides a similar presumption of
abetment of suicide (which is an offense under Section 306 IPC), in case of death of a married
woman within a period of seven years of her marriage.

Additionally, the judiciary also includes a murder charge under Section 302 IPC as this allows
courts to impose death penalty on perpetrators of the offence. Section 406 IPC, pertaining to
offences for the criminal breach of trust, applies in cases of recovery of dowry as it is supposed
to be for the benefit of the woman and her heirs.

Further, Section 498A IPC was specifically included in 1983 to protect women from cruelty and
harassment. The constitutionality of Section 498A was challenged before the Supreme Court of
India on grounds of abuse, on grounds that it gave arbitrary power to the police and the court.
However, it was upheld in Sushil Kumar Sharma v. Union of India (2005). The Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 provides that for the prosecution of offences under Section 498A IPC, the courts
can take cognizance only when it receives a report of the facts from the police or upon a
complaint being made by the victim or her family.

Page 9
 Misuse of the Laws, Provisions, Rights provided to the women

Along with the development of laws to protect women, there have instances of misuse of these
laws by women themselves. There have been a good number of cases of false acquisitions and
gross misuse of these rights. In many cases where demands of the Wife are not being fulfilled,
and in order to harass the husband and his family, or if the marriage is strained because of any
other extraneous reasons, they lodge false complaint with the nearest police station and the
husband and/or his family are instantly arrested without investigations. There have also been
cases of suicide by the husband or his family members during the course of their trial because of
the embarrassment they face due to these false allegations.

According to the statistics given in the NCRB Report, 20164 the total number of reported False
Cases related to Dowry Deaths in the year 2016 were 254 and the total number of reported False
Cases related to cruelty by the husband or his relatives towards the wife in the year 2016 were
6,745. It is rightly said by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Sushil Kumar Sharma v.
Union of India5 that section 498 – A of the I.P.C. was incorporated for the protection of women
which is being maliciously misused and stated this section as a “Legal Terrorism”

4. Crimes in India, 2016- National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, New
Delhi, India.
5. (2005) 6 SCC 281; SCC (Crim.) 1473; AIR 2005 SC 3100; MANU/SC/0418/2005. Page 10
 Conclusion

It can now be inferred that the Government of India in conjunction with the guidance of the
Judicial Body of the country have been reasonably successful in laying down most reasonable,
co-operative, supportive provisions and laws to protect the interest, life and dignity of women
and provide justice to victim’s sufferings from harassment, cruelty and dowry deaths. Still
certain stringent corrective measures need to be adopted to eradicate or atleast curb this notorious
issue of dowry demand from our country but most importantly, it requires public will and
commitment to shun away from this social and materialistic evil greed for dowry.

As it is said “whenever there is light, there is shadow too”, similarly, in order to provide justice
to women and to protect them from dowry harassment in their best interest, there have been
cases of misuse of the laws and provisions provided to help and protect them. These provisions
and rights have been exploited in a wrong manner and that too it has happened for a reasonable
period of time now. This is one of the loopholes that is needed to be corrected and rectified by
the same nobel, scholered and intellectual law-makers who have laid down these provisions
keeping in mind the protection of women from the heinous crime of dowry.

Page 11