Top court may revisit its dowry case order
NEW DELHI: Courts cannot lay down guidelines for police investigation in criminal cases even if there is misuse of the law, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, expressing reservations over its own earlier verdict that restricted automatic arrests in dowry cases.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed that section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was a cognisable offence and the law lays down a procedure.
“It’s not for the court to say how an investigation should be done. Tomorrow one will come up and say make guidelines for section 354 IPC (molestation),” the bench said.
In case the law is misused, the court at best can ask the police to be careful and circumspect in making arrests. “But we can’t say how the police should proceed. This would amount to creating a jurisdiction beyond the statute,” the bench said, indicating its willingness to overrule its July verdict that drew the ire of women rights activists.
In the July 27 verdict, Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit had, to tackle the problem of false complaints, empowered a three-member family welfare committee to examine allegations before the police go in for an arrest.
Critics felt that this direction diluted the anti-dowry law.
In October, the Cji-led court took a different view and said the judgement needed a relook. It decided to do so on its own when a PIL came up before the bench asking the court to include two women members in the family welfare committee. The bench appointed senior advocates V Shekhar and Indu Malhotra to assist it in arriving at an opinion.
During the hearing on Wednesday Malhotra urged the bench to stay the direction on forming the panel. She said police were not proceeding with complaints against dowry harassment and everything had come to a halt.
But the court did not accept the plea. “We will either overrule it completely or not do it at all,” the bench said, listing the matter for a hearing in January third week.
India outlawed dowry in 1961 but the practice of the bride’s family gifting expensive items – and even cash – is widely prevalent in many states.
Delhi Police data show dowry harassment allegations almost doubling in five years, rising from 2,046 cases in 2012 to 3,877 last year. As many as 54 women died between January and June this year in Delhi after allegedly being bullied for more dowry.