In legal terms, 498a is a criminal offence, which is:
• Cognizable: Offences are divided into cognizable and non-cognizable. By law, the police are duty bound to register and investigate a cognizable offence.
Note: Cognizable does not mean that the police can arrest you uponthe filing of the FIR. They are required to investigate as a first step. 498a is a cognizable offence.
• Non-Bailable: There are two kinds of offences, bailable and non-bailable. 498A is non bailable. This means that the magistrate has the power to refuse bail and remand you to judicial or police custody.
• Non-Compoundable: A non-compoundable case, e.g. Rape, 498a etc, cannot be withdrawn by the
petitioner. The exception is in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where 498a was made compoundable.
In actual terms,
• Non-Compoundable: Though 498A is non compoundable, the courts are allowing the withdrawal of the case
when the parties agree to reconcile or settle case. In real terms, if you pay up, the case goes away. If you don’t you’ll get stuck with a criminal case that will go on for years.
The other characteristics of this legal terrorism are:
• It is a law that fosters corruption and enables govt agencies like the police to violate Fundamental Rights.
• It plays a role in gender based vote bank politics.
• It denies justice to the real victims of dowry harassment.
• It exposes innocent families to the evils of the corrupt Indian criminal justice system.
• This is a law poisoning the lower judiciary by exposing it to corruption.
• Above all, this is a gamble bound to fail if the falsely accused choose to fight back.
The sooner you realize what this law is about, the faster you will be able to take the first steps to fight this biased law. It will take years, but you will prevail. Each case is unique. But they all have a common thread running through them. I have outlined the high level scenario, as every case is unique and has a story line of its’ own.
Lets Talk about the reason we always wandered
The Motives And Instigators:
• Money: The greatest of motivators. A 498a can lead to great terms for a fat cash settlement, or help her dad or sibling in their ventures, etc, etc.
• Vengeance: Nothing deadly than a wounded Naagin. She will have her revenge and your family will
collectively bear the brunt of it. The 498A Wives have a very close watch for your mother and your sister (s) you love.
• Guilt: She’s done something wrong, may have committed adultery and got caught in the act. She wants to cover it up with a dowry harassment case to garner sympathy and to provide cover for her guilt. It also puts her in a good position to negotiate a fat settlement and gain custody of kids, if kids are involved. Indian law is still ruled by the evidence act from 1872.
• She is just bore with you: I’m sorry to hurt your pride, but she just doesn’t like you and wants to get out of the marriage. The 498 is a easy tool to do so.
• She is dominating: She wants to control you in every possible way. She may also want you to not support your parents and siblings in any fashion regardless of your ability to do so. She may want you to throw your parents out of your/their house. Her goal is to gain control of all aspects of your life, including finances and to break the bonds and responsibilities that tie you to your family. Her failure to do so will result in a 498a.
• To marry someone else: This is a new trend whereby she will file a 498A just to force you into settling the divorce with a chunk of cash and then go on to marry her boyfriend. They will use your cash to set up their “Chota Sa Ghar”, or their “Premiyon Ka Mahal” if the settlement is large enough.
In most cases, the members of her family are the prime factor. If her mother was the promoter, you’ve possibly married into a family where the mother is a domina. The woman you married thinks that you should be under her control, because her mother wears the pants in her house. She will file the 498a in retaliation for her failure to dominate you.
If her father is the promoter, the motivation is your money. This is a much easier case to handle. If the case backfires, he will have a 498a-filing daughter on his hands and marrying her off the second time round will be expensive.
Potential matrimonial matches are always wary of these filers of 498a cases. If this situation applies to your case, once you withstand the initial onslaught and don’t give in to the threats and extortion, they will approach you for a compromise.
498a is the perfect tool for extortion and/or to seek vengeance on you and your family. The main tools that go into making it legal extortion are:
• The involvement of the corrupt, Indian police force in a domestic dispute.
• The involvement of the overburdened and unregulated lower courts and the biased and lengthy Indian justice delivery system.
• The non-enforcement of penalties (Section 182) for filing frivolous cases or for perjury.
• Political/police influence from the other side. If this is a factor in your case, I kid you not; you are in for an ordeal that will require extra doses of fortitude, courage and patience to overcome.
All these factors will be used to leverage money out of you or subject you and your family to the kind of harassment that can only be defined as torture. It is no wonder that the Supreme Court (Sushil Kumar Sharma Vs. Union of India Writ petition(C) no.141 of 2005) has condemned 498A as “Legal Terrorism”, though ruling 498a constitutional.
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