Marriage in life is a long journey of adjustment, compromise and sacrifice! But with the advent of new laws in the name of women safety and empowerment in married life, under the influence of leftists, following the government of India signing the ratified CEDAW on 30th July 1980 which eventually came into force as an international treaty on 3rd September 1981, the institution of marriage itself has come into danger.
Since the time we got our independence in 1947, we as a country lived with communist infatuation and socialist evisceration under Late Jawahar Lal Nehru who passed Hindu Code Bills, which was further strengthened and taken to new heights by Late Indira Gandhi! As a fresh initiative in gender politics, the left-leaning congress ecosystem passed the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 1983 on 26th December 1983 that amended the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and inserted a new Section 498-A.
The so-called Dowry system
The video bursts the leftist propaganda around the dowry system that India has been made a prey of.
#Prachyam abundantly clarifies that we aren't a regressive society as has been presented by the leftist historians.
Even though I haven't studied law, but from whatever understanding I have about law, I can say that whenever in the history of mankind there was a need felt to have laws for the civil society, the intention must have been to create a synchronised collection of thoughts and rules of natural justice. The purpose behind enacting laws must have been to instigate deep-rooted social engineering to enable a better and safer life for the generations to come, in an ever-changing society under ever-changing circumstances.
498A Background
But, driven by the ideology of the leftists who saved Mrs Indira Gandhi’s government around the draconian Emergency, the ecosystem created a narrative that married women in our country are in dire need of a law to save them from the harassment they face in their matrimonial homes, and added section 498A in the Indian Penal Code to work as a deterrence.
Not only section 498A was added in IPC in the year 1983, but also a new section 304B was added in the IPC in the year 1986, as a stringent law to curb the so-called menace of dowry death. Section 304B of IPC we will discuss in another blog.
As is destined for any wrong law passed just as an agenda, 498A also has become the most misused law in the country, threatening the very institution of marriage.
How 498A IPC is Anti-Social or ‘Legal Terrorism’?
The single largest characteristic of 498A is usage, it has no other use except 'misuse' to wreak havoc on the husband and in-laws. There is no dearth of reasons that make it anti-social, including but not limited to the following:
It deals with marriage-related matters under criminal law rather than civil law.
Before being arrested (even when 41A CrPC notice is served), a non-bailable warrant does not require proof. This reveals the accused's vulnerability of being robbing of their basic human rights.
Even those who have nothing to do with the so-called victim woman’s family life, including and not limited to old aged persons, handicaps, pregnant women and children, are named in the complaint.
Laws made in the name of women safety are exceptions in the world. They believe the accused to be guilty, until proven innocent.
Every time, all the gifts that are given in the marriage are termed ‘dowry’, as soon as the relations of the couple turn sour. There is no mechanism to judge whether the article exchanged are dowry or gifts?
Being non-compoundable, the complaint cannot be reversed, preventing the couple from reconciling.
With the social stigma of being termed a dowry greedy, it becomes next to impossible to find a suitable bride even after acquittal from the court and the divorce.
The reasons behind almost all the 498A cases include not restricted to:
Legal extortion
Extra-marital affairs
Pre-marriage relationship
Adultery
Dominating personality
Paternity frauds
Behavioural issues
Custody of kids
Fraudulent marriages
Husband refusing to leave his age-old parents
A very large number of innocent men are not able to bear the depression, pain and frustration of having been implicated in a false case and commit suicide.
In order to save their lives in the false cases, numerous families end up paying a hefty price in the name of alimony, to resolve the dispute.
Unscrupulous women even use false 498A cases to expedite divorce proceedings.
Using as a medium to extort an enormous amount of money, women first marry NRIs and then file 498A.
Even the investigating agencies and judiciary are well aware of the fact of ongoing large scale falsehood in 498A cases, but their inherent gynocentrism keeps them on the woman's side compelling the man to settle the case with a financial settlement under the garb of alimony.
Matrimonial cases linger in court for years with only the man and his family withstanding the cost.
Even after the divorce an accuser woman can file a 498A case if she wants to lawfully extort money in addition to the maintenance.
The 498A law contains no misuse clause that could prevent women from abusing it.
And in our judicial system, it is practically impossible to initiate a defamation case against the accuser woman as it would be difficult to prove it.
Last, but not least, it was on 19/07/2005 that the Hon'ble Apex Court while passing a judgment in the case titled 'Sushil Kumar Sharma vs Union of India and Ors' termed the misuse of 498A of IPC as Legal Terrorism.
Conclusion
The time has come to rescue innocent men in the country from the shackles of the unscrupulous women who misuse 498A at the drop of hat in order to pressurize her husband and in-laws to surrender to her illegal and unjustified demands. Section 498A IPC should be scrapped, as it’s a wrong law passed just to satisfy a political ideology.
Otherwise, the only option we as men are left with against all odds is to be prepared to lead a life alone and never settle 498A cases by paying alimony. Let the unscrupulous accuser also feel the heat along with the courts with ever-increasing pendency.
Till the time 498A is not scrapped, it's incumbent upon those falsely implicated innocent men to anyhow manage the crisis.
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