Supreme Court Expressed Concern Over Dowry Malpractice

Supreme Court expressed concern over dowry malpractice, issued guidelines for the trial of cases.

The Supreme Court has expressed deep concern over continuing social evils like dowry and torturing/killing daughters-in-law for this malpractice .

The court, in an important decision given on Friday, said that the Parliament added the provision of section 304B in the IPC to end the practice of harassment of a married woman by husband and in-laws for dowry.

Several steps were taken to end this social evil, but it cannot be denied that this evil continues even today.

While issuing guidelines regarding the trial of dowry murder cases, the court said that while interpreting Section 304B (dowry killing) of the IPC, the legislative intent was to end the social evil of dowry.

This important decision in the dowry murder case was delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana. The court has issued guidelines regarding what to be kept in mind while trying the accused in the dowry law.

The court ruled in the case of Satvir Singh of Haryana and others.

In this case, they were married in July 1994 and a year later in July 1995, the woman died of burns, which led to the murder of her husband and in-laws, and in 1997, the trial court sentenced the accused.

After the appeal was dismissed from the High Court, the accused husband and others reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court also upheld the punishment awarded to the accused under section 304B of dowry murder.

The apex court said that it would not interfere in the trial court and the high court verdict. However, he acquitted the accused of motivating the accused to suicide.

The Supreme Court in its judgment cited a report on the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime’s Global Study of Homicidal-Gender Related Killing of Women and Girls.

According to which 40 to 50 of the total murders of women in India in 2018 There was the percentage of dowry murders. The court said the worse truth is that from 1999 to 2016, these figures remained unchanged.

Even the latest figures of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) say that only in 2019, 7,115 cases were registered under Section 304B.

The court, in the guidelines issued for the trial under Section 304B of the IPC, said that the prosecution should establish the existence of the elements of this section.

If proved, the provisions of Section 113B of the Evidence Act will apply. The court said that the word immediately before death in section 304B cannot be construed to mean immediately before.

The prosecution must prove the connection between dowry harassment and murder and the live lawyer. In the trial of such cases, the judge, the prosecution, and the defense must be careful.

The Supreme Court expressed concern over the recording of the accused’s statement to be filed in court under Section 313 of the CrPC in light and superficial manner.

The apex court said that the statements of section 313 should not be treated as a mere courtesy because it is based on the fundamental principle of impartiality. The trial court should also balance the other aspects.