Don't exaggerate dowry harassment cases
Dowry Harassment Progress Report
Two month old accused in dowry harassment case!
Details of Dowry Law Cases for the year 2007
Dowry Death
The Supreme Court has rightly directed the central government to review the Dowry Harassment Law as several women are just exploiting the legal provisions in the system by exaggerating the small things to harass the husbands and their families.
The Supreme Court is so worried about the misuse of the dowry harassment law that it wants the Central government to assess it again. The court has also said that lawyers should not encourage clients to file false complaints alleging dowry harassment and should ensure “that the social fibre of family life is not ruined”.
The court made the observations while quashing a criminal complaint filed by one aggrieved woman Manisha Poddar against her husband Manish and his family. The woman's complaint, registered in 2007, said that her in-laws had demanded a luxury car from her parents.
“The reason for filing the complaint was to harass and humiliate the husband’s relatives,” a supreme court bench said.
In earlier judgments, the apex court had warned the police against encouraging complainants to exaggerate allegations against in-laws. This time, it offered the same advice to lawyers, saying “they [lawyers] must ensure that exaggerated versions of small incidents are not reflected in criminal complaints”.
The court also suggested to the government that the anti-dowry legislation be reviewed since most complaints under the law seem to be filed in the “heat of the moment over trivial issues without properly thinking them out’’. The court made the observations in a judgment given on an appeal by one Preeti Gupta from Surat and Gaurav Poddar from Goregaon, Mumbai.
Gaurav is Manisha’s brother-in-law. Manisha said in her complaint against her husband, Preeti, in-laws Pyarelal and Shushila and brother-in-law Gaurav that they demanded a luxury car from her parents when they visited her parents house to attend a festival in 2007.
But, it was found that Preeti and Gaurav had never visited Manisha’s parents’ home.
This is just a tip of the iceberg. A large number of dowry harassment cases are in fact highly exaggerated cases filed in collusion with some people to harass the husband and his families.
Such practice should be curbed and nobody should be allowed to misuse the law.
