I remember, I faced the word ‘Women Empowerment’ for the first time around 2007-08. I didn’t understand the term and neither its relevance then. At that age, it was strange to accept that our society has been discriminating (as well as prone to crime) on women on each and stage of their life whether it be education, job opportunities, or even equal status in the family however as the time passed, it was quite clear that such things existed and still exist. In India, we have a variety of laws for the protection and upliftment of women like Dowry Prohibition Act,1961, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act,2005, Indian Penal Code,1860 etc. The laws for women are there but still, we see a number of cases of dowry, rape, molestation, eve-teasing daily.
In the last month of 2012, on December 16, heartbreaking news flashed about a gang rape in the Capital. After that, the whole society stood up against the crime & violence against women and India saw a historical moment in favor of women rights. The accused got punished & it was the end of this story. But is it all? Is this the whole story of crime against women? Do all the time males are the wrongdoer? I think No! We’ve another aspect of this whole thing. And this other side of the story is not faced or fabricated ( as many of us may assume), but this is the bitter reality of the wicked world. Let’s have a look at all the concepts:
Laws for Women
In Indian Penal Code,1860 there is a number of provisions which deals with the women’s protection which is been misused frequently. The main provisions are:
- Section 354: Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.—Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
As the underlined and bold portion of the provision being vague, it has been misused numerous times as to lower down the reputation of a person and to pull out some monetary relief over some personal grievances. In Ramkripal S/O Shyamlal Charmakar vs State Of Madhya Pradesh on 19 March 2007 the Supreme Court said: For over a century courts have tried thousands for the offense of “outraging the modesty” of a woman without a precise definition of what constitutes a woman’s ‘modesty’. And now, the Supreme Court has finally defined modesty-
"The essence of a woman's modesty is her sex."
But in a recent case the Bombay High Court Justice Naresh Patil said: “Even if you keep your hand on the shoulder of a woman, it is for the lady to comment on the nature of the touch, whether it was friendly, brotherly or fatherly.” This leads to the conclusion that it is totally on the girl’s part whether she got offended or not by the action and leaves no opportunity to the man to justify himself.
2. Section.304B. Dowry Death- This provision was added with the view to penalize especially in the case of death of a woman within seven years of her marriage presuming the reason of the death as the demand of dowry. But this has resulted in a disaster for the in-laws. In a case of Narender Singh Arora v. State [i] the Delhi High Court observed the mentality of girls (deceased) parents. According to High Court’s observation, ‘parents of deceased wants, whatever be the cause of death, the in-laws must be hanged.’ Whether it be a natural death or suicide(whatever the reason may be of suicide) of the girl within seven years of the marriage, the litigants want their in-laws to be hanged.
The same has been the behavior of the deceased parents’ and the society in all cases, they being prejudice in their emotions presume that the male is always the wrongdoer in these cases and don’t even try to find out the real facts.
3. Section 375 & 376: Rape is a wide term under section 375 of IPC,1860 and the punishment is given under section 376. Rape is a heinous crime and the rapist must be punished, we all agree on this, however, the problem arises when for small issues someone fabricates a story of rape against a person. The laws are so strict that a when a rape is reported the alleged person gets barred and the society tags him as a rapist without a trail or knowing the truth. In a case, a woman lodged a false case against a businessman at the behest of another person who wanted to settle scores with him. This false case destroyed the reputation of this businessman, subsequently leading to a massive financial loss. The Court, while acquitting him, observed that this is a perfect illustration of misuse of Rape Laws. Justice S P Garg, while acquitting him said that “it is true that rape causes the greatest distress and humiliation to the victim but at the same time a false allegation of rape can cause equal distress, humiliation and damage to the accused as well. The accused must also be protected against the possibility of false implication.”
There are numerous instances when a girl willingly or by the pressure of her family has lodged a case of rape seeking some benefits from the male. And it is a bitter reality.
4. Section 498A. Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty. This provision being cognizable and non-bailable, the well-educated females often use it as a weapon against her in-laws. In the case of Savitri Devi v. Ramesh Chand[ii], the court held clearly that there were misuse and exploitation of the provision to such an extent that it was hitting at the foundation of marriage itself and proved to be not so good for the health of the society. The court believed that the authorities and lawmakers had to review the situation and the provisions to prevent such from taking place.
When women accuse their husband their husband under this section, making the offense non-bailable and cognizable if the man is innocent he doesn’t get the chance quickly to get justice & ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’ Therefore, the lawmakers must suggest some way of making this section non-biased to any individual such that the guilty are punished and the person wronged is given justice.
Apart from these provisions we can see the misuse of Section 509, IPC,1860 which talks about ‘Word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a women’ and in these cases a very less scope is there for a man to prove his innocence as one act may be offensive to a particular woman and the same would be just an act of joke or light mood. So it’s quite clear that these laws are being strict and in favor of females, must be revised and made easy.
Concluding observation
Living in a male dominant society, it is quite tough to raise voice against crime for females. However, Indian contemporary society, (I consider it as protector of women’s rights ) has provided a variety of laws for protection and improvement of women but a right presupposes a corresponding duty too. The reality is that other half of the society has got the privileges, but instead of using them for the betterment of their own, they had used it for the downfall of their counterpart. We have live examples of Jasleen Kaur incident and Rohtak sisters’ case. Most of the cases filed are being fake when inquired.[iii]
The problem doesn’t end here. It has been established as a trend and a large number of under-trials are behind bars without any justification.
And as our society has a short temperament seeing this trend, we now often accept that the new cases like this are fake and frivolous. This leads us to a conclusion that we need some improvement in these laws as whenever any court comes to the conclusion that the allegations made regarding commission of the offence under section 498A IPC are unfound, stringent action should be taken against persons making the allegations. This would discourage persons from coming to courts with unclean hands and ulterior motives.
Criminal charges should be brought against all authorities that are collaborating with falsely accusing women and their parental families, everyone should have equal rights and responsibilities, irrespective of gender. In the current social context, there should be similar laws to protect harassed husband and his family members from an unscrupulous wife.
These provisions only provide for the remedy to a woman only and these days it is being used as a ‘brahamastra’ by the woman. It is a highly debatable issue these days, if this problem is not solved by legislation it may become a bane for the society. People’s trust over the judiciary will come to an end. So it’s high time that these laws should be amended and some changes like mentioned above should be brought up in this law.
[i] Crl. Rev. P. No.555/2003
[ii] II (2003) DMC 328
[iii] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/false-rape-cases-in-delhi-delhi-commission-of-women/1/409320.html
Other references:
http://www.legallyindia.com/views/entry/section-498a-of-ipc-its-use-misuse-html
https://uchalla.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/prisondata-2.jpg
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/many-rape-cases-fake-used-as-vendetta-court/articleshow/56606934.cms
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