Supreme Court to revisit its order on arrest in dowry cases
It was submitted that mindless and senseless deprivation of life & liberty of women could not be dealt with effectively through soft sanctions alone.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea to revisit the July 2017 earlier order imposing restrictions on the police to arrest persons in dowry-related cases and allowing for settlement between the parties.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, however, made it clear that it would not go into the facts of the case relating to Rajesh Sharma in which judgment was rendered. The CJI said, “We are not dealing with the facts of the case. The judgment in Rajesh Sharma binds the parties thereto. This is not an appeal. We shall only see if the directions given under Article 142 of the Constitution (to do substantive justice) fill in the gaps in the law or they take away the spirit of IPC section 498A relating to dowry harassment.”
Giving a series of guidelines, the apex court had in July last ordered setting up of family welfare committee in each district. All dowry-related complaint were to referred to this committee, which would call the parties in person, make enquiries and submit a report to the magistrate concerned and till then no arrests of husband or in laws were to be made.
Seeking to revisit the order, Nyayadhar, a ladies organisation, strongly opposed these directions and sought modification. It was pointed out that a married woman whenever goes to the police station to make a complaint against her husband and other close relations takes a risk to fight with society at large but being left with no other remedy against cruelty and harassment ultimately chooses this last resort i.e. Section 498A of IPC.
It was submitted that mindless and senseless deprivation of life and liberty of women could not be dealt with effectively through soft sanctions alone.