IPC 498a: Unlike other sections of law, one complainant’s(wife) vengefulness can get an entire family(husband’s) arrested and the subsequently caught in legal wrangles for an extended period of time.

No investigation or warrant needed before arrest and start of proceedings(since the crime u/s IPC 498a is cognisable), and there is no fear of punishment even if the complaint is found to be false later (after investigation or lengthy trial), these are two major reasons why IPC 498a is misused widely as pressure-tactic(reasons of misuse are mentioned towards the bottom of this mail).

Only 2% conviction in 498a- an ineffective law prone to misuse(research report by Center for social research (See the section -> Findings of the Study: Nearly five crore married women in India are victims of domestic violence (DV). Only 0.1 percent (1 out of 1000 DV cases) of these are being reported. Out of 100 cases that are ordered for investigation under 498A, only in 2 cases the accused get convicted.

Supreme court itself termed this trend of misuse as Legal Terrorism [Sushil Kumar Sharma Vs. UOI and Ors - Writ Petition (C) No. 141/2005]. (see excerpts of this SC judgement and US and Canadian Consular warnings about misuse of IPC 498a here)

An innocent man gets arrested u/s 498a every 5 minutes, a lady gets wrongfully arrested every 23 minutes, a minor child(under 18) arrested every day, a senior citizen every 2.4 hours(source National Crime Research Bureau)

• Appeal to the Member of Parliaments
• 1000s of Victim cases
• 100s of media clips

High socio-economic profile of victims(IIM, IIT, Software engineers, Merchant Navy, NRI, Industrialists, Rich husbands/family): Easy targets and better yield in case of money extortion.

Save Indian Family Movement: Brief History of SIF, Objectives and FAQ

SIFF(Save Indian Family Foundation) came into formal existence in 2005 as a yahoogroup of individual members and NGOs. Nevertheless , the movement can be traced back to 2003 when a group of individual members coordinated themselves and helped each other with information and other relevant issues, through internet discussion boards, emails and some other yahoo groups. At present SIFF is a registered entity, with a membership of over 50,000 people and over 20 NGOs.

SIFF’s primary aim is to facilitate a better family system for the progress of a family and hence positive progress of India.

Read more about our Save Indian Family scope, awareness and other objectives here.

SIF findings with help of RTI(Right to Information Act in 2005) (Source: Ministry of Home Affairs, RTI No. 24013/20/2006-SC/ST-W) :

Also take a look at the article which appeared in 'Harmony' magazine, about organisations fighting against legal terrorism(which has reported the below data too, also blogged here).

• Nos of cases u/s IPC 498a registered in 2005: 58319
• Nos of Cases Dismissed at charge sheet level: 10,491 (18%)
• Nos of Cases Charge sheeted on face value of complaint: 47,828 (82%)
• Nos of Cases Where the accused were not guilty (Acquitted): 24,127 (41%)
• Nos of cases where the charges were genuine (Convicted): 5739 (9.8%)

• For these 58319 registered cases, 134757 people underwent arrest under 498a and Dowry Prohibition Act.

Age wise distribution:

• Below 18 years: 358 (0.2 %)
• Above 60 years: 4744 (3.5 % )
• between 18-60 : 129655 (96 %)

World Health Organization (WHO) WARNS

The World Health Organization (WHO) has explicitly cited the misuse of anti-dowry law by daughters-in-law, as one of the primary reasons for elder abuse in India. (Pls refer: Elder Abuse in India and page 21 of Missing Voices (WHO))
It mentions: "In India there is a law that is intended to protect the daughter-in-law from abusive in-laws. A daughter in law can go to the police station and lay a complaint that she is being abused by her in-laws, and the in-laws are arrested on her word alone. However the focus group participants reported that some daughters-in-law are using this law as a form of elder abuse,by making false police reports. In general, participants stressed that the lack of caring attitude by daughters-in-law was a major problem. (India)"

US GOVT WARNS

Whenever we talk about NRI marriage fraud, why DON’T WE TALK ABOUT Dowry law misuse? Even the US govt. realized the problem of Dowry law misuse in India and they have also displayed a travel warning on their website, warning US citizens(Persons of Indian Origin) going to India for marrying Indian girls)
It mentions: "A number of U.S.-citizen men who have come to India to marry Indian nationals have been arrested and charged with crimes related to dowry extraction. Many of the charges stem from the U.S. citizen's inability to provide an immigrant visa for his prospective spouse to travel immediately to the United States. The courts sometimes order the U.S. citizen to pay large sums of money to his spouse in exchange for the dismissal of charges. The courts normally confiscate the American’s passport, and he must remain in India until the case has been settled. There are also cases of U.S.-citizen women of Indian descent whose families force them against their will into marriages to Indian nationals." Take the example of

Josh Delcore.

Canadian Govt. Warns

Canadian Consular affairs info for Canadian abroad:
Excerpts --> Growing numbers of Canadian citizens have been caught up in marital fraud and dowry abuse in India. Most cases involve Indo-Canadian males who abandon their wives in India after cheating them out of large sums of money. Other cases involve misuse of India’s Dowry Prohibition Act. This law, which was enacted to protect women and makes demanding a dowry a crime, is sometimes used to blackmail men through false allegations of dowry extortion. Individuals facing charges may be forced to remain in India until their cases have been settled or pay off their spouses in exchange for the dismissal of charges. To avoid such problems, you are advised to register your marriage in India along with a joint declaration of gifts exchanged, as well as consider a prenuptial agreement

Girls use it for any reason but genuine

(Other than Harassment and cruelty, also see signs of impending false 498a), see some of the root causes for this legal terrorism:

• Pre marital affair, agreeing to marry groom of parents choice with a plan to dissolve the relation by false case u/s 498a, once the girl does it her parents will have to support her and finally cede to her choice of partner.
• Ego, high-handedness, vengefulness
• Extra marital relationship, money-mindedness
• Borderline personality/Bipolar disorder, pregnancy blues/post partum psychosis
• Extortion, there have been a lot of cases where wives were extorting money by misusing 498a serially, one marriage after another.
• To alienate the husband from his family and his responsibilities towards his old and dependent parents
• To acquire husband’s property and extort huge sums of money
• To obtain a favorable divorce settlement
• To wrest child custody from the husband by leveling false charges of cruelty against him
• To dominate the husband and harass his family thereby creating conditions for coercion

See an earlier related post, on data which could be sent to Media.