IPC 498A: A Law for Needy or Greedy?

The Author of this article is Ravi Chaudhary (B.Tech, MBA) UP PWD, Aligarh

The very burning question of our present Indian society is – If IPC 498A is the "Magic Wand" given in the hands of young Indian wicked & liar women and to her greedy parents, by our Hon’ble Indian Legal System, to earn chunks of money from their in-laws by planting fake & fictitious stories of bride abuse which practically had never happened? 

Any country's law is made for the well being of its citizens, giving them proper justice, in case something wrong or dishonest has happened against them. Law is made to save humans, save their rights, their individuality to provide “Justice to All” irrespective of their "Region, Religion, Caste, Creed, Place of Birth, Language they speak & Gender". But is IPC 498A honest on these basic parameters of Human Rights? 

Decades back a Law "IPC 498A" was framed to provide justice to those suffered women who have been unnecessarily dejected by their husband or other in-laws, a law for those women who, if have been mistreated by her husband & in-laws on account of dowry demand from a bride or her parents, then those women can approach Hon’ble Court and seek justice. The Reason or Intention behind framing any law is always Prudent, Pure, Rational, Transparent & Far-sighted and this should be the vision of our Hon’ble law making authorities when they had framed IPC 498A. Everything sounds well till people are approaching the Hon’ble Court with clean hands, pleading to punish the guilty husband or in-laws if the case is of real torture of innocent wife. 

But the story changes completely when we found that in our present Indian society all shrewd, greedy, shameless, covetous & crafty women who are unsuccessful on almost all spheres of their life & unable to do anything concrete, positive and constructive in her career, or maybe due to some of her past or present extramarital affair, thus conspires an evil plot against her husband and other in-laws to earn the easy money through the abuse of law. Subsequently the beauty of these cases shines more when the money-minded greedy parents & siblings of that woman accompany & promote her for the simple reason of earning easy money and thus "A Fake Cooked Story" is presented in front of police/court by hiding behind IPC 498A law. 

Now the question arises is that in almost all cases (under different sections of IPC) the system demands investigation, proofs, evidence, witnesses, etc but none of the thing or point is assumed in any of those cases but the Best Part of 498A is that we start and proceed the case based on "Assumptions". Howsoever wicked the wife is, how so ever evil her parents and siblings are but as far IPC 498A is concerned, the system prima facie start presuming & assuming the story narrated by a wife to be true and thus maximally send police to arrest husband & in-laws and charges are framed on them. The mediation process, if explored to settle the dispute, is only serving as a money transaction remedy where the husband is made to pay money for the crime which he had never done else he will be made to suffer and waste many productive years (sometimes even decades) of his life by dangling to & fro to attend the proceedings of the Hon’ble Court.

At last if the husband and his parents ultimately prove all those false charges imposed on them as wrong before Hon’ble Court after a trial of say 5-10 years, the damage caused to the life of the husband and his parents by the wicked conspiracy of liar wife had already been done. The best part lies at the end when husband and his family founds that there is NO provision to suo motu punish that wicked wife/bride and she is left free to keep on abusing the law further. This at one place put the husband and his parents under the trauma of life long agony and at other place, it promotes (in society) that such wicked & liar women can torture her husband and other in-laws without any fear of punishment.

So at the very beginning of the upcoming discussions on IPC 498A, "Three" basic points arise –

1.      All the cases under different sections of IPC require some proofs, evidence, witnesses, investigation, etc before starting of any criminal case against accused, but in 498A the mere words of estrange wife are prima facie assumed to be true and we proceed the case based on those Assumptions thereby wasting the years/decades of the life of innocent husband and his family.

2.      We put aside the very basic principle of our Constitution i.e., "Each & Every Citizen of the Country will be treated as Equal & there will not be any discrimination based on of Region, Religion, Caste, Creed, Place of Birth, Language they Speak & Gender" and thus framed a Highly Gender Biased Male Discriminating Law in the form of IPC 498A thereby assuming the husband and his parents/siblings as the culprit until they prove it by contesting the case for years/decades or make a money settlement through mediation with the wicked wife.

3.      Why the wicked and liar women (wife/bride) are not suo motu punished by the Hon’ble Courts when the husband disproves all the charges imposed on him after contesting the case to the full extent of the law.