Dowry
The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 says, “Dowry means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or by the parents of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person, at or before or any time after the marriage, in connection with the marriage of the said parties but does not include dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies. The expression ‘valuable security’ has the same meaning as in Section 30 of the Indian Penal Code.”
There is a difference between gifts and dowry; gifts are given completely voluntarily whereas dowry is not. It is, however, often difficult for a third person to be able to distinguish between the two and judge which is which since the pressures involved in the payment of a dowry may be covert.
Dowry, in India, as we know it today, originated in the Hindu ‘Streedhan’ — wealth, mainly in the form of jewellery, which was given to a woman at the time of her marriage. It belonged exclusively to her and was meant to safeguard her and secure her financial independence. However, over time, this system was corrupted and dowry has today virtually turned into the price which a woman’s family for a husband for the woman herself. One can only speculate on what caused the degradation of ‘Streedhan’ in India and the associated dowry-related violence.
In ‘Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime‘, Veena Oldenburg says that the violence we now associate with dowry which often results in murder can be traced to the social, political and economic restructuring which the British wrought during their rule of India. Her argument is that dowry deaths are not a reflection of Indian caste, culture or religion.
It cuts across all sections of society. There are some laws which have been created to control dowry and the violence now associated with it although their utility is questionable.
In addition to the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, there are provisions in other laws which apply to dowry deaths and say in relevant part:
Section 304 B, IPC: If 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 is a ‘dowry death’, and such husband or relative shall be deemed to have caused her death. 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 for life.
Section 113 A, Indian Evidence Act: Where a married woman commits suicide within 7 years of her married life and it is shown that her husband or his relatives had treated her with cruelty, it would be presumed by the Court that her husband or relatives had aided (abetted) her suicide.
Section 174, Code of Criminal Procedure: When the officer in charge of a police station or some other police officer specially empowered by the State Government in that behalf receives information that a person has committed suicide, or has been killed by another or has died under circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion that some other person has committed an offence, he shall immediately give intimation thereof to the nearest Executive Magistrate empowered to hold inquests, and, unless otherwise directed by any rule prescribed by the State Government, or by any general or special order of the District or Sub-divisional Magistrate, shall proceed to the place where the body of such deceased person is, and there, in the presence of two or more respectable inhabitants of the neighbourhood, shall make an investigation, and draw up a report of the apparent cause of death, describing such wounds, fractures, bruises, and other marks of injury as may be found on the body, and stating in what manner, or by what weapon or instrument (if any); such marks appear to have been inflicted.
The report must be signed by the police officer and other persons, or by so many of them as concur therein, and be immediately forwarded to the District Magistrate or the Sub-divisional Magistrate.
When there is any doubt regarding the cause of death, or when for any other reason the police officer considers it expedient so to do, he shall, subject to such rules as the State Government may prescribe in this behalf, forward the body, with a view to its being examined, to the nearest Civil Surgeon, or other qualified medical man appointed in this behalf by the State Government, if the state of the weather and the distance admit of its being so forwarded without risk of such putrefaction on the road as would render such examination useless.
Any District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Magistrate and any other Executive Magistrate specially empowered in this behalf by the State Government or the District Magistrate is empowered to hold an inquest.
