2. Topics to be Covered
What is IPC 498a?
Statistics on 498a
Woman arrested under 498a
What court & Other say of 498a?
Why 498a is misused?
498a and Society
Conclusions
Questions
3. IPC 498a?
Passed by Indian Parliament in 1983, Indian Penal Code
498A, is a criminal law (not a civil law) which is defined
as follows
– “Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband
of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be
punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
three years and shall also be liable to fine. The offence is
Cognizable, non-compoundable and non-bailable”
4. Point to note
This section is non-bailable (you have to appear in
court and get bail from the judge), non-
compoundable (complaint can't be withdrawn) and
cognizable (register and investigate the complaint,
although in practice most of the time arrest
happens before investigation)
In Nutshell : Even if the complaint is false, you shall be
presumed guilty until you prove that you are innocent
16. Suicide Stats in 1999
Citation text: Nagaraj, MIDS, paper to Congress
17. Age and Gender wise profiles of those who died by suicide in India (Year: 1999)
Married Men Suicides
18. Some Shocking Facts:
Under a false case of section 498A -
An INNOCENT child is arrested every day.
An INNOCENT senior citizen is arrested every 2.4 hours.
An INNOCENT woman is arrested every 23 minutes.
An INNOCENT person is arrested every 5 minutes.
These statistics clearly demonstrate the legal and systematic
The ratio of Male : Female victims of suicide in India is 63 : 37
and nearly 44.7% of the suicide victims were married males while
only 25% were married females.
(Source: National Crime Records Bureau)
19. 498a and Society:
• Abuse of the Criminal Judicial System
• Elder Abuse – Most senior citizens who have never been to the police
stations or courts in their lifetime are dragged into jail without
investigation and then into court cases that span several years
• Women Abuse – Many women in the husband’s family are abused by
the process
• Abuse of entire extended family – Many in the husband’s family lose
their jobs/earnings
• Cruelty towards Children – Separation of parents from children,
including infants results in trauma
• Unequal rights (not only women vs. men butalso women vs.
women) – The wife/daughter-inlaw can file charges against all the
women in the husband’s family even if they are innocent but the female
relatives of a husband do not have similar
20. 498a and Society:
• Disintegration of families – Due to fear of being
implicated in a false 498A case, parents have now
started to legally disown their sons before or immediately
after marriage. The terror of this law has resulted in the
break up of numerous families.
• Suicides of innocent people – Unable to bear the
harassment and the humiliation they suffer after being
charged in a false criminal case, many people, including
aged senior citizens, have been committing suicides
21. Why 498a is misused?
• Legal Extortion – Get-rich-quick-scheme to extort large
amounts of money
• Prior Relationship – Wife has a prior relationship, and cannot
get out of it. She marries to satisfy her parents, and then
misuses the 498a law in order to obtain a divorce
• Adultery – Women who indulge in adultery use 498a as a
bargaining tool
• Domination – Wife wants the husband to abandon his parents
and siblings, and have total control over his finances and social
behavior
• Custody - Deny the father and his family access to their
child(ren).
• Fraudulent Marriages – to hide education & Mental health
22. What Court & Other Say @ 498a-
Supreme Court (Sushil Kumar Sharma Vs. Union of
India Writ petition(C) no.141 of 2005) has
condemned 498A as “Legal Terrorism”
• The Supreme Court and High Courts have
acknowledged this ‘misuse’ as a growing menace in
the society and have recommended the legislature to
amend the law
• Justice Malimath committee recommended that IPC
498a be made bailable and compoundable.
23. • The US State Department has issued a travel warning
regarding the misuse of dowry laws in India, and
highlighted the fact that Indian courts require large
sums of money to settle such cases
• The Canadian Government has issued a similar
warning
• The WHO has mentioned that 498A is one of biggest
reasons for elder abuse in India.
• Many women’s organizations, including several State
Commissions for Women, have acknowledged the
misuse of these laws and have recommended similar
protection for men
What Court & Other Say @ 498a-
