To
The Honorable Minister,
Dr. M. Veerappa Moily,
Ministry of Law and Justice
4th Floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhawan,
New Delhi – 110 001
Subject: HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST MISUSE OF IPC 498A, ANTI MEN LAW. REVIEW OF IPC 498A AS PER SUPREME COURT DIRECTIVE
Respected Sir,
In the last 60 years of Independence, many efforts have been made, many measures taken and many laws passed for uplifting, empowering and protecting women, who, as a group, were considered weak and disadvantaged. While proudly championing women’s rights, the society also tacitly approved the propagation of anti-male sentiments and policies by “radical groups” and the resultant diminution in value of men’s lives and the blatant violation of men’s rights.
While the blatant misuse of laws like IPC 498A and Domestic Violence Act has been well-documented, women’s organizations and the Government are still touting them as tools for ensuring women’s empowerment and gender equality. In reality, these laws are not about equality at all, as they are specifically designed to treat men and women unequally. In fact, not even all women are treated equally under these laws. A brief look at the assumptions of these laws is enough to understand why they are unfair, and how they violate basic human rights.
On various instances, Supreme Court of India, has issued direction to the Government of India to Review IPC section 498 A, namely:
1) At the time of delivering the judgment in case of CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1512 OF 2010 , (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No.4684 of 2009) in the case of Preeti Gupta & Another vs State of Jharkhand & Another, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India had stated the below with reference to section 498a and its huge misuse .
In Para 34 :-
… Before parting with this case, we would like to observe that a serious relook of the entire provision is warranted by the legislation. It is also a matter of common knowledge that exaggerated versions of the incident are reflected in a large number of complaints. The tendency of over implication is also reflected in a very large number of cases
IPC 498A has a strong bias against women as well and the extent of Women themselves getting arrested in a so called women protection law are:
Table 1: No of WOMEN Arrested in IPC 498a in last Five Years
Women arrested in Year No of Arrests
2004 27832
2005 28745
2006 31253
2007 35667
2008 37369
TOTAL 160866
Source:NCRB
The Indian suicide statistics as well is a strong reflection of state
of Indian married men.
Suicide Statistics of year 2009
MARITAL STATUS MEN WOMEN TOTAL % MORE MEN Ratio
Never Married 17738 10063 27801 76% 1.76
Married 58192 31300 89492 86% 1.86
Widowed/Widower 2848 2674 5522 7% 1.07
Divorcee 635 613 1248 4% 1.04
Separated 2058 1030 3088 100% 2.00
TOTAL 81471 45680 127151 78% 1.78
Source: NCRB
I, Dashrath M.Devda, President, Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh, strongly protests against the misuse of IPC 498A, DV Act, IPC 304B, IPC 306 and all other women centric laws. We have called for a Hunger Strike and I, have been sitting on Hunger Strike on behalf of my NGO, since May 15, 2011. Today it is more than 120 hours of my Hunger Strike.
To prevent torture of Indian married men and their families against
the misuse of Anti-Men laws, our Demands are:
• Close down Crime Against Women Cell
• Constitute National Commission for Men in lines of National
Commission for Women
• Remove the word “relative” from the definition of IPC 498A. No
relative should be dragged in the dispute of husband and wife.
• Stop extortion under IPC 406 in the guise of Streedhan
• Mediation in marital disputes should not be handled by Police Officials.
• Simplify and ease out the Divorce procedures to stop suicides and homicides.
• No maintenance to wife who has left the matrimonial home.
• All matrimonial litigations should be tried in one court.
• Stop judicial bias towards women
• Amend DV Act of 2005
• Penalty for misusers of IPC 498A
• Stop TV serials promoting family disharmony
As per” SC Directive” as mentioned above, we want a Time Bound review of 498A, otherwise we would go for “Jail Bharo” Andolan from May 23, 2011.
Regards,
Dashrath.M.Devda
President
09925834516
Dear Dashrath,
I totally support your fight against this mis-use of 498a.
Well It is shame to see a bigest democractic country is sponsering gender baised law.
Let there be equality in law. Today women and men are equal and let there be a fare justice and not baised.
I live in usa and have spoken regarding many women’s organisation in usa about 498a and none of those women support or agree with the kind of law we have in India like 498a and DV which is totally in favour of women and no chance for a innocent men to get justice.
This law proves that even if you don’t take dowry/not harsh your wife but still you are prone to the attack of 498a by your wife if she decides to screw your life….so no one on this earth can buy this.
Today, India is changing…women have changed, there are living-in relations started in metros, girls are equally changing their relation if they find not interesting and moving on to other man of their choice…when there is so much change we are still thinking women of 1940’s and pushing this gender baised law.
Sorry to say:
A woman who is having extra marital affair outside marriage, when found out by husband instead of expressing sorry of her mistake she is using 498a to walk out with dignity and huge package of alimony settlement from husband after tarnshing husband and his parents in jail.
A woman who don’t support husband taking care of his old parents is using 498a as tool to make him dance to her tunes.
There are some women made this as business to marry a man, put 498a and get huge money settlement and move on to next man.
here is one such examples
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=1&contentid=200904042009040401312215243047ff1§xslt=
So which this law is breaking Indian system and giving power to wrong hands…what is the use of this law?
Instead let there be lessons in school about wrong thing in taking and giving dowry, let there be lessons of family value and value of husband and wife during school time. Which can really have greater impact on next generation to have successful family life.
Instead having this baised law solves no purpose…in fact it has harmed more women.
Just wife is not a woman…even sisters, sister-in-laws, mother, grand mothers of a man are also women.
I totally support your struggle and wish govt opens its eye.
Doing Right thing at Right Place !!
Abolition of these nuisance laws will make india’s family structure more sound.
The spurt in abuse of Indian Penal Code sec 498A and the Domestic Violence Bill makes it imperative for us to examine this draconian law. Though made for the noble purpose of protecting women from dowry harassment, it has morphed into a tool for humiliating and extortion in the hands of unscrupulous daughter-in-laws. The law is so potent because one can be jailed merely on a complain by the daughter-in-law.
The main motives for filing a 498A case are: –
Money: The greatest of motivators. A 498A can lead to great terms for a fat cash settlement, or help her dad or sibling in their ventures, etc, etc.
Vengeance: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. She will have her revenge and the husband’s family will collectively bear the brunt of it.
Guilt: She’s done something wrong, may have committed adultery and got caught in the act. She wants to cover it up with a dowry harassment case to garner sympathy and to provide cover for her guilt. It also puts her in a good position to negotiate a fat settlement and gain custody of kids, if kids are involved. 498A will be filed when paternity is in question.
She Is Just Not Into You: She just doesn’t like the husband and wants to get out of the marriage. The 498A is a convenient tool to do so.
She Is A Control Freak: She wants to control the husband in every possible way. She may also want the husband not to support his parents and siblings in any fashion regardless of his ability to do so. She may want you the husband to throw the husband’s parents out of his/their house. Her goal is to gain control of all aspects of the husband’s life, including finances and to break the bonds and responsibilities that tie the husband and his family. Her failure to do so will result in a 498A.
To Marry The Boyfriend: This is a new trend whereby she will file a 498A just to force the husband into settling the divorce with a chunk of cash and then go on to marry her boyfriend. They will use your cash to set up their “Chota Sa Ghar”, or their “Premiyon Ka Mahal” if the settlement is large enough.
In most cases, the members of her family are the instigators. If her mother was the instigator, then it is possible that the daughter-in-law’s mother is a dominatrix and she thinks that the husband should be under her control, because her mother wears the pants in her house. She will file the 498A in retaliation for her failure to dominate the husband. If her father is the instigator, the motivation is the husband’s money.
The other characteristics of this extortion racket are: –
It is a law that fosters corruption and enables govt. agencies like the police to violate Fundamental Rights.
It plays a role in gender based vote bank politics.
It denies justice to the real victims of dowry harassment.
It exposes innocent families to the evils of the corrupt Indian criminal justice system.
This is a law poisoning the lower judiciary by exposing it to corruption.
The other salient features are: –
Conviction is abysmally low which proves that most of the cases have been falsely filled.
About 27,000 women are arrested under this law which translates to the fact that one woman is arrested EVERY 23 minutes.
The radical feminist groups and other organizations that advocate such laws do not represent the true voice of the women of India. A close examination of the personal lives of the women who claim to fight for women’s rights show that they are divorced, unmarried or had a close relative with a bitter matrimonial experience. Most of them profit in some form or another, from this misery.
In light of the above, it is high time that this law is immediately amended.
DEAR MR. DASHRATH,.
,
AS A MATTER OF FACT THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS COUNTRY & ALL LAWS FRAMED UNDER IT, ARE THE BOOKS OF COVENANTS, AGREED TO BY A CAUCUS, TO BE FOOL, LEGALLY LOOT & RULE THIS NATION.
NOW IT IS THE DIRE DEMAND OF THE DAY THAT IT, THE CONSTITUTION, SHOULD BE REVAMPED TO PROVIDE BETTER GOVERNANCE IN THIS COUNTRY THUS CONTACT SO THAT A CASE CAN BE BE FILED TO THE APEX COURT IN THIS BEHALF, SO THAT THE OVERALL LIFE OF THIS COUNTRY OF BPLs- BELOW POVERTY LINE, CAN BE MADE PEACEFUL, HARMONIOUS & PROSPEROUS AT THE BEHEST OF SUPREME COURT OF THIS COUNTRY—dr.amritgaur 09876826661