INTER-RELATION OF DOWRY WITH INDIAN PENAL CODE, OTHER RELEVANT ACTS

Dowry or Dahej is a kind of payment of cash or any property or any valuable

security demanded by the bride’s family to bridegroom’s family is called kanyadan
. Kanyadan is a part of indian mariage ritual .The word ‘kanya’ means girl or bride
and ‘dan’ means gift .

The dowry system was started in upper class families as a gift. Later the dowry
was given in marriages in the form of insurance in case her in-laws mistreated.

In the year 1961, the government of India legally prohibited dowry system. Dowry
is biggest form of social evils and no person should tolerate such evil practices and
efforts should be made to eradicate it. Giving and taking dowry both the people
should be punished severely as it makes bad impact on the people’s life.

In the recent years the government has brought some laws to punish such people.
The imperil of dowry has been covered in three sections of Indian Penal Code viz.

-Section 304-B (Dowry deaths)

-Section 406 (recovery of stridhan).

-Section 498-A (cruelty on the basis of demand of dowry).

However, there are some major issues with these laws will be discussed as follows.

INDIAN PENAL CODE, 1860 .

1.DOWRY DEATH [ SECTION 304B.(1) ]

( 1 )“Where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or

occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her
marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or
harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for , or in connection
with , any demand for dowry , such death shall be called “dowry death” and such
husband or relatives shall be deemed to have caused her death .”
( 2 )”Whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a
term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to
imprisonment”.

To prove dowry death following essential ingredients should be considered:

1.The death of a woman should be caused by burns or bodily injury or otherwise

than under normal circumstances.
2. Such death should occur within 7 years of marriage.
3. She must be subjected to cruelty by her husband or by her relatives.
4. Such cruelty must be in connection with the demand of dowry.

One of the most important provision of dowry death is that the death of bride
should relate to cruelty or harrassment on account of demand of dowry.

Punishment for Dowry Death

Such person who is gulity of such offence shall be imprison for a term which shall
not be less than 7 years but may extend to life imprisonment.

2. RECOVERY OF STRIDHAN ( SECTION 406 )

Section 406 is applied for the recovery of stridhan from her husband and his family
.

Stridhan is a gift or any valuable property given to her by her family and is also
known as property of a women on which she has complete ownership. Stridhan
includes jwellery (given by her family), and gifts presented to her during marriage
or later.

Offences under this section are non-bailabe and cognizable.

3.CRUELTY WITH RESPECT TO DOWRY ( SECTION 498-A )

This section deals with non-bailable offence , this section applies to:

- husband,

- relatives of husband, of a women who have treated her with cruelty.

The section shows that the word ‘cruelty’ covers following elements:

(i) Any ‘wilful’ conduct which is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide; or

(ii) Any ‘wilful’ conduct which is likely to cause grave injury to the woman; or

(iii) Any ‘wilful’ act which is likely to cause danger to life, health i.e, physical or
mental of the woman;

This law deals with four types of cruelty:

(i)Any conduct that is likely to drive a woman to suicide,

(ii)Any conduct which is likely to cause grave injury to the life, limb or health of
the woman,

(iii)Harassment with the purpose of forcing the woman or her relatives to give
some property, or

(iv)Harassment because the woman or her relatives are either unable to yield to the
demand for more money or do not give some share of the property.

The nature of this section

498-A is a cognizable offence, non-bailable and non-compoundable offence.

Punishment-

Such person who is guilty of the offence whether husband or the the relative of the
husband of a women, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to three years and shall liable to fine.

Apart from IPC, the government has enacted legislation which prohibits Dowry i.e,
Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT, 1961

This Act applies to whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir .This Act was
enacted with an objective to prohibit the demand and acceptance of dowry by any
means from either of the party to the marriage.
 This act makes both giving and taking and demanding of dowry “as consideration
for the marriage” a punishable offence.

Here “dowry” is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition of a

marriage.

Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal.

According to section 2 of Dowry Prohibition Act,1961, the term ‘dowry’ means

demand of any property or any valuable security from bride’s family .

PUNISHMENT-

A person who is demanding or giving dowry can be puished by an imprisonment

of upto 6 months, a fine of upto Rs. 15000 or the amount of dowry (whichever is
more ), or imprisonment upto 5 years.