SC To Examine If Marriage Precondition For Dowry Harassment Prosecution

14 October 2007
The Supreme Court has decided to examine whether a person can be prosecuted for an offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act without marriage actually taking place.
A Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and D K Jain on Friday admitted a petition filed by sub-engineer Manohar Lal Rawat against his conviction for an offence under Sec 4 (demanding dowry) of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1951 .
Earlier, counsel for the petitioner, Suresh Chand and K Shivraj Chaudhary contended before the court that Rawat has been wrongly convicted by the Madhya Pradesh High Court after 20 years for demanding dowry at the time of marriage on May 19, 1986.
The counsel also submitted that the petitioner had agreed to marry the girl without dowry after the intervention of the village elders and it was the bride’s family which refused to give their daughter in marriage to the petitioner and hence no offence can be said to have been committed by the petitioner.
It was also argued on behalf of the petitioner that both the courts below have recorded the finding of withdrawal of demand for dowry by the petitioner.
The court wanted to know whether actual performance of marriage is a precondition for attracting the provisions of the Act or whether a person can be prosecuted even without solemmnizing the marriage.
In the present case, the petitioner had demanded a refrigerator and a scooter during the customary dinner given by bride’s family to the ‘baraat’ and the girl’s family had expressed inability to meet the demand for scooter.
The apex court had granted bail to Rawat on June 18 this year and had also issued notices to the state of Madhya Pradesh.

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Understanding Dowry Violence

Here is this rather insightful document, again from the NPRD, which gives a lot of information about police perspective on dowry violence.

Here is the document: Understanding Dowry Violence.

Here is an excerpt: “3. Section 3 Penalty for Giving or Taking Dowry Section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, provides that, “If any person after the commencement of this Act, gives or takes or abets the giving or taking of dowry, he shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both.” But now the punishment has been enhanced and a minimum and maximum punishment limits have been laid down by the Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 1984. The Amending Act provides that, “the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less then six months, but which may extend to two years and with fine which may extent to ten thousand rupees or the amount of the value of such dowry, whichever is more.””

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