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Abstract

During the 1980s a huge wave of protests were carried by several women rights organisation against the torture and crimes against women in their matrimonial houses by their husbands and their in-laws. After continuous protests and lobbying by the women’s organisations the legislators brought laws like section 498A and 304B IPC after amending the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1984 and 1986. These laws were made strong and harsh with the intent to provide maximum protection to women who were tortured or harassed because of dowry by their husbands and in-laws. The provisions were non-bailable, cognizable and non- compoundable. After a disastrous failure of the parent Act, the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, these provisions proved their metal and safeguarded women’s rights and helped in delivering of proper justice. But lately, a new trend has emerged in society where women are misusing these laws against their husbands and in-laws. The primary reason for this is that over many years the police, society as well as the judiciary developed a pre-conceived notion that when a woman complaints against her husband or in-laws she always speaks the truth, but this myth was busted in the case of Preeti Gupta v. State of Jharkhand and Savitri Devi v. Ramesh Chand and also the landmark judgement of Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar in 2014. The Law Commission in its 243rd Report mentioned that section 498A IPC is the most misused legal provision and also the Supreme Court has termed it as ‘Legal Terrorism’. The primary cause of such misuse is the laws are not gender neutral and also there is no provision in favour of men, in cases where the woman files a false complaint under section 498A IPC. It will not be incorrect to state that laws in India are pro-woman and it’s high time that India has to make these legal provisions gender neutral. This paper will discuss the reasons of misuse and the recent development with regards to the section 498A IPC along with suggestions.

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