Approach of Family Court in settling Matrimonial Disputes with regards to Dowry.

In this Article, Meghna Nag discusses the grounds of dowry on matrimonial disputes.

Introduction
Marriage is a sacred ritual, and also a socially and legally sanctioned union, usually between a man and a woman. However, are all marriages sacred in the name of LAW? The reason why most marriages are unlawful, is because it causes dowry and destroys the simplicity of the bond.  Sometimes, few people make their work done “under the table, behind the eyes of law”. Nobody could get even a slight taste of it. Hence, law remain helpless.

BUT this is 21st century, yet the rate of dowry does not seem to have lowered down or abolished completely. Many people even have the idea of how heinous crime taking and giving dowry is! Yet they keep practicing the same mistake again and again. But wait, this isn’t a mistake if attempted repeatedly, it then turns into a massive criminal offence, very little to be forgiven.

Why Dowry A Social Evil?

 The custom of dowry in Indian marriages is a deep-seated cultural phenomenon that has been described as one of the largest obstacles to “confront India on her road to economic and social justice.” Indeed, one of India’s greatest social failures is the extraordinarily high level of gender inequality and female deprivation that has persisted in the nation for the last several decades through cultural practices such as dowry. The custom is held responsible for a number of problems executed against the nation’s women, including dowry violence, bride burning, and wife murder.
 
"Dowry or Dahej" in the sense of the expression contemplated by Dowry Prohibition Act is a demand for property of valuable security having an inextricable nexus with the marriage, i.e., it is a consideration from the side of the bride's side of family to the groom or his parents/family for the agreement to wed the bride-to-be.

The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961

In this Act, “dowry” means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly:

• by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or
• by the parent of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person, at or before [or any time after the marriage]  in connection with the marriage of the said parties, but does not include, dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies. 

The expression “valuable security” has the same meaning as in section 30 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).

Over hundreds of years, however, the definition of the term has evolved from the ceremonial and voluntary gift giving of the bride’s family to a form of monetary extortion demanded by the groom’s family. Studies on the origins of the tradition postulate show that dowry originally and ideally denoted gifts of ‘kanyadan’, such as ornaments, expensive clothes and other precious items referenced in ancient texts on marriage ritual, voluntarily presented to both the bride and groom’s families during the time of marriage.

 The higher the socio-economic status of the groom’s family, higher the dowry demanded. The exact negotiation for dowry is often done through a mediator so that the marriage retains some pretence of sanctity and does not appear to be an entirely monetary transaction. The modern practice of dowry, therefore, is characterized by a shift from voluntary to forced gift giving, as well as the primary role of the groom’s family in determining the demand for gifts from the bride’s family.

Serious Cause:
One very common cause is the social and religious constraints, that leads to reduction of boys for marriage due to prohibition of inter-caste or inter-religion marriage and leaves the bride with limited options, and in order to get rid of the burden, the bride’s family agrees to provide the dowry. Lack of education or lack of awareness is the root cause of the dowry system. Girls are not sent to schools, since the society fears the fact that an educated girl won’t adhere to their unreasonable demands and will fight for her rights.

People expect that the dowry will be given as a compensation for the groom’s career, education and wealth whereas the bride’s education, career and wealth are completely disregarded as she is not given equal societal status to men. Be it cash, gold or property rights as dowry, these additional financial responsibility is proving to be a burden on the bride’s families in India.
 
Protests like these among the common people should be highly given importance: Dowry Death

Few Solutions to eradicate Dowry:

• Education is only the main catalyst to the elimination of dowry in India. The system likely owes its continuation to lack of education, which leads to negligent decisions and financial exploitation of the bride’s family.
   
• The education should reiterate that a gild child is a valued commodity, not a liability. The education to ensure that young families inculcate the strength to reject the dowry system in the future.
   
• Mainly the education of children and daughters in the society should be continued and they are encouraged to grow their own career without being dependent on anybody. The mainstream community must be at par with the government’s prospects because the legislation is proving inadequate to bring a revolution.
   
• The masses hold the power to eliminate the dowry system by quitting its practice, once they have been educated on the ill, socio-economic effects of the system.
   
• This potential annihilation of the dowry, done through education, could bring equal rights and freedoms for women, encouraging gender equality and self-dependence.
   
• Different kinds of Awareness Campaigns should be acknowledged. In the modern era, media is the propagator of knowledge and the broadcaster of information interchange. Since the government has been ineffective with implementing change to dowry-related crimes, media campaigns could initiate a movement to encourage the citizens to abide by the formulated rules of the anti-dowry legislatures.
   
• This social awareness, created by the media, could prove to be successful in the robust annihilation of the dowry system in India. It is a movement, which cannot be achieved by the government alone. So, active community participation is a primary pre-requisite to convince the masses to abandon the dowry system.

Conclusion:
It’s a shame, despite of thousands of protests and educated people in the society, who fail to stop this violent activity of dowry practising. There have been Anti-dowry laws intended to prevent the giving and receiving of a dowry, yet it seems very less for the convict. Dowry still continues to be a demand in condition to accept marriage proposals in many parts. It is prolonged to an extent that disputes related to dowry might result in violence against women.

It is due to dowry that men will always be superior to women and would keep being a bait to injustice. This is creating a lot of mess and negativity into the society. Also, has become a nightmare for families who cannot afford it. The cases of infanticide are increasing. Poor parents do not have any other option but killing their infant-girl before she even sees the light of the world. Today, more than 8000 women are dead due to dowry, not having anyone else to protest, this violence continues.

Misuse of anti-dowry law to blackmail husband has become a common practice. The number of false 498A cases or cases of misuse of anti-dowry laws has even made the Supreme Court of India to term it as ‘legal terrorism’.

The biased nature of this law has enabled women to file a false case against their husbands for reasons such as: =

• To get out of the marriage due to her inability to adjust to the new family.
• Blackmailing the husband to extort money.
• To implicate the husband in a false case and rekindle with a man she was previously associated with or got into an extra-marital affair with.

SO STOP DOWRY!