SECTION 498A IPC – AMMUNITION TO WOMEN OR INSULT OF LEGISATURE?

Section 498A of Indian Penal Code 1860 equivalent to Section 85 and Section 86 of Bharatiya
Nyaya Sanhita 2023 primarily deals with the cruelty subjected to a married women by her
husband or his relatives. It was basically provided as a shield to the married women to
protect her from the pathetic reality of the domestic violence occurring within the four walls
of a house in the ancient era. But in today’s modern era with the rise of financial
independence of women, growing education system, modernization and false and
overhyped radical feministic view, this shield has been converted to a hot weapon for the
women or any of her relative against the husband or his family. It has became an
advantageous instrument for wife to settle personal scores against the husband and his
relatives .
Before dwelling in the depth of the misuse of Section 498A of Indian Penal Code 1860
equivalent to Section 85 and Section 86 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, let’s first engage
ourselves to understand what does our legislation says about the concerned section:
Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty 1—
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.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, “cruelty” means—
(a) any wilful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit
suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical)
of the woman; or
(b) harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any
person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or
is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.
Section 498A of IPC, 1860 was inserted in the legislation in 1983 as a part of Criminal Law
(Second Amendment) Act, owing to the rising instances of death of women due to
“accidental kitchen fire” but it was later determined that the fatalities were deliberately
caused by the husband or his relative for the dowry harassment or mental cruelty of
married women. But now it has somewhere became a venegeance or a simple way to get
out of a wedlock. This section has became a curse to the roots of marriages. The justice
system has seen an evident rise in the filing of false cases under Section 498A of IPC by
women or their relatives either to blackmail the husband to carry out any of her negative or
unreasonable demand , or to dominate the husband, coercively influencing him to separate
from his parents or transfer his property in the name of his wife, the other reasons can be
that the women who came into wedlock due to her parents force now wants to opt out of
the marriage and thus abuses 498A to obtain a divorce from the husband.

1
Section 498A Indian Penal Code,1860
It must be perceived that although Section 498A was fueled with good intent and was
proved to be a blessing for the simple and innocent souls who have been wounded by their
husband but, the execution of the same is carried out in such an unjustified way that it has
caused hindrance to achieve coveted end. The shield provided to the women now has taken
a shape of a sword which makes it difficult for the married man to tackle thus, making it
invincible. Justice’s principle is that it should be utilized to shield the weaker and make sure
that the wronged is given a fair opportunity to rebut but when the wives accuse their
husbands below Section 498A IPC by creating the offence non bailable and cognizable ,if the
person is innocent he doesn’t get an opportunity quickly to urge justice and “justice delayed
is justice denied”
In 2003 Malimath Committee Report2, it was duly observed by the committee formed by the
Home ministry in 2000 that ,
” There is a general complaint that section 498A of the IPC regarding cruelty by the
husband or his relatives is subjected to gross misuse and many times operates against
the interest of the wife herself. This offence is non-bailable and non-compoundable.
Hence husband and other members of the family are arrested and can be behind the
bars which may result in husband losing his job. Even if the wife is willing to condone
and forgive the lapse of the husband and live in matrimony, this provision comes in
the way of spouses returning to the matrimonial home. This hardship can be avoided
by making the offence bailable and compoundable.
The Code may be suitably amended to make the offence under Section 498 A of the
I.P.Code, bailable and compoundable. “
The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Sushil Kumar Sharma vs Union of India 3 observed that “the
object is to strike at the roots of dowry menace. But by misuse of the provision (Sec 498A) a
new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used a shield and not
assassins' weapon. If cry of "wolf" is made too often as a prank assistance and protection
may not be available when the actual "wolf" appears.”
The NCRB Report4 reveals that a total of 111,549 cases were registered under Section 498A
of IPC. Among these cases, 5,520 were deemed false by the police and 16,151 cases were
closed due to reasons such as mistake of fats or law, insufficient evidence or civil disputes.
No matter how optimistic and benevolent intention was there of the lawmakers in drafting
the Section 498A of IPC ,but over the time, it has substantially been reduced to a puppet of
harassment and torture. There is no denying in the fact that there are a lot of cases in which
the actual female victims are more as compared to men but still there are a lot of cases
observed by the Indian judiciary that are proved to be fake and filed on a mala fide
intention. The apex court is continuously taking efforts to effectively distinguish between
the false and actual cases of Section 498A IPC and thus, urging the concerned authorities to

2
Dr. Justice V.S. Malimath, March 2003, Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System Government of
India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Volume 1
3
AIR2005SC3100
4
National Crime Record Bureau Report 2020
bring about a change in the same. There have been numerous judicial pronouncements that
emphasized on the widespread abuse of the above mentioned law.
Some of the judicial precedents are :
1.State by Assistant Police vs Srikanth And Ors. 5 – The Karnataka HC observed that the entire
family must not be included in the investigation unless there is a concrete evidence against
them in the cruelty subjected to women u/s 498A IPC and that it is outrageous for the police
to name the entire family as accused party.
2.Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar6 - The court in this case observed that because the offence
in this section is non bailable and cognizable ,and thus, it is more often used as a weapon
rather than the shield by the disgruntled wives. Moreover, it results in harassing the
husband and his relatives by getting them arrested without a prima facie case. Thus the
court in this regard issued certain guidelines which the police officer is mandated to follow
while arresting a person under Section 498A IPC or Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act ,1961
and such arrest must be made on a reasonable satisfaction with respect to genuineness of
the allegation and in addition to that magistrates must be careful enough not to authorise
detention casually .
3.Rajesh Sharma vs State of U.P.7– The Supreme Court , in light of rising misuse of the
legislation ,gave certain directions to deal with the menace ,except in the cases involving
tangible physical injuries or death and ordered that the issued guidelines must be tried for
atleast six months and then a suitable report by the National Legal Service Authority should
be submitted about the effectiveness of the listed rules.
4.Swapan Kumar Das vs State of West Bengal 8- The court stated that the Section 498A IPC
was enacted by the legislature to strike the dowry menace out of the society but now it has
been duly observed that by misusing the section and its power new legal terrorism is
unleashed.
5.Prateek Bansal vs State of Rajasthan 9 – The latest case about the misuse and abuse of
Section 498A IPC had its judgement delivered on 20 April 2024 wherein the bench
comprising of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra stated that the
impugned proceedings are nothing but abuse of process of law wherein the complainant
father and daughter, who is also a police officer, had been misusing their official position by
lodging the complaints one after the other against the husband under Section 498A IPC and
thus, this practice of state machinery being misused for ulterior motives and causing mental
harassment to husband is deprecated.
Thus, from the above facts and circumstances one can deduce that although the provisions
were mandatorily required to deal with the abuses and mishaps the women faces posts her
marriages by the husband or his relatives in regards to their greed for dowry or any other
5
2002 CRILJ 3605
6
(2014) 8 SCC 273
7
(2017) SCC OnLine SC 821
8
2023 SCC OnLine Cal 2427
9
2024 INSC 324
unreasonable demand, but now the tables have turned. The provision which was earlier a
safeguard for the women now has become a disproportionate boon for a handful of
females. Earlier due to insufficiency of data and resources, many cases went either
unreported or didn’t get the proper legal remedy but as they are now being recognized , it is
been observed that many innocent spouses and their families have impacted by the false
reporting of cases under Section 498A of Indian Penal Code, 1860. Thus, now it has become
really important for the concerned authorities to provide an indemnity to the male member
as well so that his rights are not pointlessly contravened. It is although a bitter but the
ardent reality of the Indian legislation that neither the society nor the law values the voice
of an injured men. The society has a stigma related to it that the husband is always wrong
and greedy for the dowry from the wife and thus if any husband is reported for cruelty to
his wife, though proved innocent by the court ,but would never get a clean chit from the
societal justice. He would always be seen as a culprit and would be marginalised by the
society, no matter if he is innocent or guilty. Thus one should understand that the filing of
cases under several sections of code, e.g. being Section 498 of Indian PenaL Code,1860, or
Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act,1961, leaves a huge impact on the accused and his
family. Hence, the sovereign authority must take some effectual legal steps to cut down the
growing exploitation of Section 498A of Indian Penal Code, 1860.