With the increasing number of false complaints being registered by wives against their husband’s families and relatives under section 498A, the state government has decided to crack the whip on those who file such false complaints.
The state government, under the directives of the Union Home Ministry, has issued a notice (the copy of which is with this newspaper) to all police stations across the state to go slow in the registration of dowry and harassment to women related cases, especially in 498A.
The issue came to light when members of an NGO - Child Rights and Family Welfare, spoke to the media on Wednesday about the new directive to the police stations. “The Maharashtra Government and DGP have issued pre-arrest guidelines of people under section 498A of Indian Penal Code. A complaint under section 498A is first required to be referred to a counselling centre for counselling. Thereafter the concerned police station has to carry out an investigation of the complaint. The complaint should be registered and the arrest should be done only if the complaint has any substance in it. Since the time this penal provision was introduced in 1983 the provision was not reviewed and no built-in safety was provided to ensure misuse. This has caused a very large scale misuse of this section to settle personal scores. Innocent families are shattered and ruined in such a way that even Supreme Court has termed it as ‘Legal Terrorism’,” said Sandip Kedia, president of Child Rights and Family Welfare.
Speaking about the disadvantages of the section, he said, “The section is non bailable and non-compoundable, so the case cannot be withdrawn and hinders any scope of reconciliation between the couple and thus the whole family breaks. Since more than 95 per cent cases are found to be false, there should be Suo Moto Punishment for misuse of the law.