The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed concern over the misuse of anti-dowry law and said, “It is being used as a weapon to unnecessarily harass the husband and his family”. The apex court’s statement comes amid outrage over the suicide of a 34-year-old techie, Atul Subhash, over alleged harassment by his wife Nikita Singhania.
The court has said that this law was made to protect women from domestic violence and dowry harassment. But many times women use this law to get their unreasonable demands fulfilled from the husband and his family.
A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh dismissed a case of cruelty and dowry harassment filed by the wife against a Telangana man and his family. The judges found that a civil suit to end the marriage was filed by the husband. After this, the wife filed a case of dowry harassment against the husband and his family under section 498A of IPC.
The Supreme Court said that women make this law “a weapon in their personal dispute” with the husband and his family. “Baseless allegations are made in such cases. The motive of the woman or her family is to harass the husband and his family. If the facts are not investigated in such cases, then there will be a possibility of misuse of the judicial process,” the bench noted.
However, the judges clarified that they were not making this comment on all the cases. Their concern is about the misuse of the law.
