[Commons-Law] Re: Yes 498a is really getting more and more misused

Fri Sep 23 18:16:52 IST 2005

Dear all,

Let me try and respond to some of the issues that have
been raised in the Section 498A discussion to the best
that I can:

1. First of all, all laws may be generally open to
misuse. Is there anything extraordinary about the
misuse of Section 498A? I do not think so, and I am
only relying on factual data and empirical studies to
support my claim.
A study of court decisions in the state of Maharashtra
carried out by the Women's Studies Unit of the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences in 1996 showed that only
2.2 % of cases brought under section 498A during
1990-96 resulted in conviction. Another study done by
Vimochana in Bangalore during the years 1998-1999 on
cases relating to dowry death and domestic violence
based on the Karnataka State Crime Records data shows
that only 22 cases of Section 304B (dowry death) and
498A were disposed of in 1998. Out of these, none
resulted in conviction - 4 were acquitted and 18 were
disposed by other methods. In 1999 too, there were no
convictions - only 2 acquittals and 19 "other
disposals". The latter category of ‘other disposals’ is
an euphemism for "compromise cases", that is cases in
which victims' families are induced or threatened into
letting the police drop proceedings against the accused
- a totally unacceptable procedure since criminal cases
are not compoundable like civil actions. These facts
show that in majority of the cases, even the entire
trial is not completed and the complainants are forced
to drop the proceedings. Therefore the argument which
some of you might make that the abnormally low
conviction rate proves the falsity of the cases cannot
be sustained.  
Another significant study done by the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences on Section 498A complaints in 1999
received in four police stations in Mumbai revealed
that 40% of these complaints were filed by their family
members, after the women were dead. This shows that in
almost half of the cases of domestic violence, the
women’s family only approaches the police after she is
dead.
These studies are available with TISS and Vimochana and
 if anyone is interested I am sure they would be very
happy to supply copies.

2. Secondly, have there been any studies to show use
and misuse of any other laws, for eg. theft or murder?
Do we know how many convictions have taken place for
other offences, as compared to the number of cases
registered? I dont think there is any State sponsored
study to determine what amoutns to misuse. Therefore, I
would say that we should not loosely make claims of
'misuse' of Section 498A without keeping all these
factors in mind.  

3. Thirdly, there is no bar to the State enacting
pro-women laws. In fact the constitution mandates the
State to make special provisions for women and children
in order to protect their rights. Therefore, I do not
think that the argument that there should not be any
pro-women laws can be sustained.

4. lastly, someone on the list complained of there
being too many women's groups and not enough children's
groups and men's rights groups! You may not be aware,
but there are hundreds of child rights groups all over
the country. And as regards groups to protect men's
rights - you are free to start your own group to
protect your rights if you believe they have been
violated. India is a democracy which allows people to
associate freely, so maybe some of the men on this list
who believe that Section 498A is being used falsely
against them must start their own group, and I wish
them all the best!

regards,
Jayna

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:25:33 -0700 (PDT), Peter II
wrote:

 Protima Pandey, Jayna Kothari, Vina Raj, Satya and
others,

Yes the stories you sent are real. Those people should
be booked by law and sent to jail. I truly despise
those kind of wrong doings and we should work on
removing dowry from our society which is a menace. We
should eradicate men torturing women from our society.
I am true supporter of this and will help you in this
regard as much as I can. Please take my word for it.

Please help understand my point of here now
1. I think IPC 498a is totally gender biased law. It
gives wives and her family who have gone haywire
license to abuse the law and have her husband and her
in-laws sent to jail without any investigation with a
non bailable warrant. In current modern India when we
are talking about gender equality why do we have such
barbaric laws which blatantly favors one gender. I
agree this was meant for rural India in the 1980s when
the bill for this law was passed. In those times it was
hard for illiterate women to produce proof and I may
have supported this law at that time. But times have
changed now and we are talking about advance and
developed India. Today in Delhi, Mumbai and in urban
India where people know about this legal loophole, this
law is more misused than being used for ulterior
motives of wife and her parents. I dont want 498a to be
eradicated I want the husband and families should get
arrested only after proper investigation. We
 should not have such laws reflective of agrarian and
third world country.
2. If the law is musused then the wife and her family
should be booked and sent to Jail. Show me another
country where it is so easy to file a false FIR and put
all the in laws family in jail and get away with it.
This is ridiculous. I demand that 498a should exist but
if misused then there should be stronger punishment for
people who misuse it. This will set an example for all
the people who misuse this law. Filing a false 498a is
as easy as ordering pizza and bang all the in laws in
Jail no questions asked. I demand non bailable. non
compoundable and cognizable aspect of this law should
be amended.

I believe you all will give neutral thoughts to my
above demands and let me know what you think.

You must be wondering who I am? I had arranged marriage
with my wife in India. She is suffering from mental
disorder and they hide this from us before marriage.
She used to hit me and torture me here in USA. She even
used to push and hit my mother who came to USA to visit
us. She got arrested here in USA and spend a night in
Jail and got convicted in US courts for domestic
violence in public (I will send you her police report
and court papers if you are interested). After I filed
for Divorce here her mother went to India and file
false 498a against me and my parents. We didnt take
single paisa as dowry. This is not just my story but
thousands of others (there are more false 498a cases
being filed than true). Please go through some of the
links Vina Raj sent they will show you other true
stories. If you want more true stories let me know I
will send you many more links and send you a document
with hundreds of real stories similar as mine.
 Please help me amend this unjustified and ailing law
which is being misused more and more in todays modern
India.

Peter
[Commons-Law] Is really provision like IPC 498a is
getting misused
protima pandey devilspot at yahoo.com Wed Sep 21
23:07:11 CEST 2005 

Previous message: [Commons-Law] Is really provision
like IPC 498a is getting misused 
Next message: [Commons-Law] Pirates' copycat pose puts
yoga on the mat 
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [
author ] 

Mr.V Raj,

Can I forward the following cases to you, which are
breaking my heart, my pocket and my conviction that
society will change-

a) A 4 year old case of a woman living in Texas who was
nearly killed by a hot steam iron while she was trying
to protect her child and herself from yet another
episode of beating that her ex-husband inflicted on
her. Dowry was just one of the many reasons he used to
abuse her. She has fled, is in California and he has
moved here and is fighting tooth and nail to get
custody of the child. My client's parents moved to the
US because the ex-husband was using his goondas to
harrass them in Chennai.

b) A 4 year old case of a San Diego woman whose
ex-husband was abusing her for dowry and she one day
snapped and stabbed him and is now serving a sentence
for assault with deadly weapon. Child protective
Services has her two year old daughter and she has to
take DV classes and anger management classes before the
court can re-examine her custody issues. All this while
the child is with " Dadi ma" and "papa".

c) A case where the victim was married to a successful
chicago big-5 CPA. Her family are rich exporters from
Delhi, they paid an arm and a leg as dowry, he still
abused her, she tried fleeing from her home twice and
he falsly accused her of stealing money. Finally her
parents rescued her, she came to California, filed for
divorce, and is in India since 2 years trying to pursue
her IPC 498a case at Tis Hazari. 

....
I could go on. I have about several different cases
where I run a support group for South Asian Women in
California, going through various stages of DV related
issues. I get calls from as far as Vancouver Canada. I
was recently asked to be on the board of a DV shelter
house in my county because they are flooded with
immigrant women and their problems and they have no
idea how to help them!

....and you say there is no need for dowry and DV
related issues?

Everything has a potential to be misused Mr.V Raj. You
may have not seen the other side of the coin...I am
awakened by the other side once every month at least..
and it saddens me that people like you who seem to be
well-intentioned in their actions, do not recognize the
need to face the truth.

While volunteering in 1996 in Gharwal District in UP I
met a woman who told me how she was beaten and abused
for 4 years by her drunk husband every night, in full
hearing range of the entire village. One night she had
had enough and decided she would not let him hit her
ever and as soon as he barged into the kitchen and
lunged at her, she hit him across the face with a hot
chimta ( tongs). He had the entire set of elders plus
panchayat members at her door in no time and they
chastized her for her behavior....she waited for them
to stop talking and asked them..." where were you all
when each night he beat me to near death and I screamed
hoarse for help"! 

I will never forget that woman and her story. You want
to work to defend "innocent in-laws", elders,
etc.....what about reforming the society to eradicate
dowry, to eradicate illiteracy, to end violence against
men/women and children...what about these causes??!!

You specifically referred to instances of how easy it
is for a woman to send a fax to Indian police station
to get the entire family arrested?? Wow! Please please
please send me the name and number of the woman who was
able to do this or at least the name of the SHO and fax
number of the station where the fax was sent. It will
be an invaluable asset to my clients. Really I mean no
disrespect to you but honestly please do send me the
details. Also, if the arrest involved paying a bribe to
the SHO do let me know, I am sure my clients would
consider that a small price to pay to get the
harrasment and abuse to stop!!

As for your comment about Judges 

"These judge's are the people who come to know all
facts of the case during trial, they go thorugh such
cases every
day,more then a lawyer or a individual working in NGO
can come across.
if their statements say these things means there is a
value and truth
in it." 

..Sadly the court room is where the perpetrators are at
their best behavious, they are the epitome of
innocence, the best Disney Dads/Moms in the world and
dripping with sugary sweet charm. Judges are not
clueless but they sure want to base their decisions on
what they see with their eyes in their
courtroom...their perception of what is and what
actually went on are usually skewed by master
manipulators..the perpetrators! They do not want to
rule against what they see for fear of being overturned
on appeal...so I would not say there is value and truth
in what they decide! Merely a Cover your A&# attitude!

Work with us Mr. V Raj to eradicate harrassment of all
kinds against both women and men and I promise you will
see why we need laws like IPC 498a.

Protima Pandey

VRaj <vina.raj369 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Jayna Kothari,

I was surprised to see your comments in so indifferent
way, Please
allow me discuss one by one.

Point 1. ""Out of curiosity I checked out this website
called 'save
the indian family' referred in this mail. Its content
is highly
sexist, offensive, preachy so I dont think we should
even entertain
such questions.""

Members Please you can browse yourself and try to
understand and of
you could understand please let me know by what way it
is sexist

Respected Jayana,

I am not sure which website you have browsed, please
check spells and
please confirm did you browsed following website,
"http://www.saveindianfamily.com" I personaly I do not
see this
website as "highly sexist, offensive, preachy" as
stated by you. All
members here are knowledgeable and aware they themself
can go and
check. Let me know If I am worng.

I will be very glad to receive your views on contents
of website and
improve my knowledge. Howecre I will not be in postion
to appriaciate
such false views and comments.

Point 2: ""There are so many studies done by women's
groups such as
Vimochana, TISS and AWAG all over the country, and
these studies show
that there is no such trend of misuse. These studies
are easily
available for people who are really interested.""

I am not sure which studies you are refering too. If I
am not wrong,
There are no such recent and complete studies / survey
made, they seem
to be false views created in the past on incomplete and
partiall
study. I will be very glad to get these study /survey
reports if they
are available, and willing to pay for the same. if
there are any
nominal charges. In the past three times I personaly
approched TISS,
Bombay for these study reports, without any success. If
you get these
reports for me, it will be very usefull and I will be
thankfull to
you. The only study /survey refered in various
discussion, it is the
study done by TISS in 1983 in Nashik district in
particular taluka or
similar. For this I approached TISS three times without
any success.
It appears this study was conducted in very biased
manner and entirly
for different purpose and on very different grounds.
The result of
which is wrongly applied and used. Hence I will be very
thankfull, if
you could give me details of this study which will help
me to
understand the ground reality. and respond. If you know
any addtiona
survy reports please let me know, this will mprove my
knowledge.

It seems during past and present to gets various grands
and funds
various organisation has creaded this false picture of
dowry stiken
India in international media. By this way they have
received funds but
created a bad image of India on international media.Due
to this reason
there are so many womans forum exists and no single
child forum exists
and no single froum for men. India has so much of
corruption, why
there only 2 to 3 forum for fighting corruption but
1000 of forums for
saving woman from dowry domestic violence. Why are
fundamental natural
laws getting twisted for these so called protecting
woman, Really
protection of woman or dowry lies in removing the
corruption from
police and justice making laws effective. Where as
makeing such twised
laws like 498a and DV act, legistives are giving more
option for
corruption. and weaking the india and institution of
marriage.
Marriage laws are only made for woman and not for man.

Point 3: " The claim that Sec. 498A is being rampantly
misused by
daughters-in-law to harass their poor husbands and
in-laws is being
made again and again, without any statistics or facts
in support.
Justice Malimath's report, and the numerous high court
judges make
similar claims without any factual basis."

You being Senior Advocate , I do not expect such
comment from you
regarding SC, HC. These judge's are the people who come
to know all
facts of the case during trial, they go thorugh such
cases every
day,more then a lawyer or a individual working in NGO
can come across.
if their statements say these things means there is a
value and truth
in it. I do not what makes you to make such bold
statement, comments
for these respected people. In the process stop me from
allowing to
discuss and raise one important issue to all respected
members here.
If fora moment, it is assumed you are right. Then why
some one like
you has not filled any case/PIL against these people to
correct there
views. Why there is totally sileence from various
womans forum. There
1000's of womans forums and not a single children or
man forum. Most
of these forums are creaded to get some sort of funds
from gov and or
other peoples and not for the real objective.

Please allow me to paste some of the comments of
"Vimochana" a leading
NGO workign for woman in bangalore and refered by you
in your
discussion.

http://indiafamily.net/talk/messages/54/1647.html?999111817
http://www.freespeech.org/manushi/110/vimochana.html

"What we regret most is the misuse of the strict
anti-dowry laws.
Ironically, as a women's organisation, we were in the
forefront in
demanding such legislation. One visit to the Bangalore
Central Jail
and its gross misuse becomes evident. We found that out
of 30 cases,
eight pertained to dowry deaths and in each such dowry
case, at least
six or more members of a family have been jailed. There
are too many
trumped-up charges. There are cases where the girl has
died at her
parent's house and it was made out to be a dowry
suicide case."

Similar views expressed by MANUSHI from Delhi,

"Police and Lawyers Mislead

During the preliminary investigations carried out by
MANUSHI, several
lawyers provided us with instances of the police using
the threat of
arrest to extort a lot of money from the husband's
family. Likewise,
people allege that the police threatened to oppose or
delay granting
of bail unless the accused family coughed up fairly
hefty amounts as
bribes. Others allege that many lawyers encourage
complainants to
exaggerate the amounts due to them as stridhan,
assuring them that
they would get them a hefty settlement from the
husband, provided they
got a certain percentage as commission for their
services in coercing
the husband's family. "

http://www.indiatogether.org/manushi/issue120/domestic.htm

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/grhf/SAsia/forums/dv/articles/dvindia.html

Going thorgh all above messages these websits and blogs
i am of view.
There is a large scale misuse of IPC 498a and Dowry Act.

I wonder, How one can justify arrest or harrsement of
age old parents,
pregrent sisters and childrens of family, who never
seens or visted
daughter-in-law before or after marriage. due to the
difference
between between son and daughter-in-law. To scroe or
pressurize
daughter-in-law files false case by just sending fax
from USA to
indian police station and all these people get arrested
in india, 
under non-bailable offence for years together, with out
any
investigation.

I THINK THESE LAWS NEEDs TO BE CHECKED and MODIFY to
STOP THERE MIS
USE. It should be modified if there are any genuion
cases then it
should give protection to woman , but it should not
give licence to
wife to score.

On 9/20/05, Jayna Kothari wrote:
>
>
> The claim that Sec. 498A is being rampantly misused by
> daughters-in-law to harass their poor husbands and
> in-laws is being made again and again, without any
> statistics or facts in support. Justice Malimath's
> report, and the numerous high court judges make
similar
> claims without any factual basis. There are so many
> studies done by women's groups such as Vimochana, TISS
> and AWAG all over the country, and these studies show
> that there is no such trend of misuse. These studies
> are easily available for people who are really
> interested.
>
> Out of curiosity I checked out this website called
> 'save the indian family' referred in this mail. Its
> content is highly sexist, offensive, preachy so I dont
> think we should even entertain such questions.
>
> regards,
> Jayna
>
>
>
> On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:53:51 +0530, VRaj wrote:
>
> >
> > Where the truth lies, Is really provision like IPC
> > 498a is getting
> > misused by daughter in laws? Please check various
> > messages from
> > vicimts. www.saveindianfamily.com . What do you
think?
> > Please check
> > below message.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> >
>
___________________________________________________________________
> >
> > The aim of the petition is to request to the high
> court
> > is to
> > recongnise the patterns of the vexatious cases as
> > mentioned in the
> > bhajanlal's Case & provide relief immediate relief
and
> > to publicise to
> > the public the relief is availabel to innocent and
> that
> > they need not
> > go through trial always and to recognise the marital
> > nature of many
> > cases and not to proscute under the criminal law.
> >
> > Planing on getting the following recognised as
> patterns
> > fo vexatious
> > cases and prosecution of such cases should be
stopped
> > as being
> > vexatious.This is the follow up on the Directions
> > provided by Supreme
> > court to high courts and lower courts that they have
> to
> > prvent abuse
> > of the law , elder abuse and legal terrorism by
ending
> > vexatious cases
> >
> > Prayer
> > To stop vexatious cases in the following
> > 1. Evidence of paramour
> > 2. Evidence of cash flow or equal purchase of
> household
> > good Items
> > 3. evidence of spent in marriage
> > 4. Divorce Filed in Other countries and allegations
of
> > dowry post
> > these allegations
> > 5. evidence of Fraud of Education or mental health
> >
> > Additional Prayer
> > 1. To allow the NRIs to fight their cases abd prove
> > their innocence
> > without affecting the right to life guaranteed under
> > the constituation
> > of India
> > 2. To inform the police that they only have power to
> > arrest not the
> > right to arrest in non-bailable cases and this power
> > should be used
> > sparingly and judiciously
> > 3. To direct the police to investigate and prosecute
> > vexatious cases
> > under section 211
> > 4. To again re-itrate the judicial opinion that 498a
> > should be made
> > bailable as per Mailimaths committee reform
> >
> > Some of the schedules Planned
> > 1. Adding in the schedule of documents 92 peoples
> > testimony from "we
> > are the victims of law"
> > 2. Who Report
> > 3. Suicide statistics
> > 4. USA Travel Warning
> >
> > I have the following Case laws which I am planning
to
> > refer
> >
> > 1. Recent Supreme Court Judgement ( sushil Sharma vs
> > India )
> > Directs the high courts and lower courts to protect
> > the innocent
> > 2. Pepsi Case
> > 498a or a criminal cases is not a matter of idli
> > vada sambhar
> > 3. Andhra Pradesh High court judgment
> > the punishment for the mistake of marrying an
> > arrogant women is not
> > criminal case
> > 4. J.D. Kapoor Judgement
> > too much misuse
> > 5. Justice Saldhanas Judgement
> > At the minimum 44% of cases the prosecution is
totally
> > unjustified
> > 6. Justice Rajendra's Judgment
> > serious analysis done by KArnatka Judiciary found a
> lot
> > of misuse of
> > the law
> > 7. justice Saldhana judgement
> > ( Comparitive laws ) Breaking of teeth in a fight
is a
> > minor offence.
> > 8. Abdul Kalam Vs state of Gujarat
> > If case is made that it is totally made up the cases
> > cannot be
> > prosectued
> >
> > If you have more cases on the similar lines which
> > suggest why cases
> > should not be prosecuted please help me by uploading
> to
> > the group so
> > that I can refer to it.
> >
> > What I am asking is not something the high court
> cannot
> > execute and I
> > think the PIL should be successfull since this is
the
> > first time it
> > can have the backing of 1000-1500 people & and is
> > asking for relief
> > which is well within the powers of the courts to
> grant.
> >
> > Let me know your thoughts and keep hammering away in
> > different forums
> > to get a greater chances of success. This effort
will
> > not need money
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> > Mr.VRaj
__________________________________________________Do
You Yahoo!?Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best
spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com 

_________________________________________________
FindLaw - Free Case Law, Jobs, Library, Community
http://www.FindLaw.com
Get your FREE @JUSTICE.COM email!
http://mail.Justice.com