Is Unnatural Death of Wife within 7 years of marriage sufficient to convict husband for dowry death?

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Yashvardhan Thakur from The National Law Institute University, Bhopal (NLIU) has authored a blog on "Is Unnatural Death of Wife within 7 years of marriage sufficient to convict husband for dowry death?"

Introduction

Demand for dowry before marriage in Indian society is quite common although a lot of efforts have been made by the government and civil society organisations to curtail this.Various reasons including social ,economic and religious factors have been identified as causes of dowry.Dowry system puts great burden on the bride’s family and in some cases the dowry system leads to crime against women, ranging from emotional abuse to injury and even death.It is also a primary cause for female infanticide.

Status of Dowry in the Indian Legal System

Dowry in India was prohibited long back under Indian laws including the Dowry Prohibition Act,1961 passed by the Indian Parliament and subsequently by sections 304B and 498A of the Indian Penal code. The dowry prohibition act defines “dowry” as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly. The act prescribes a punishment of minimum 5 years and a fine of not less than 15,000 rupees or the amount of dowry whichever is more. Section 304B was added to the Indian penal code. It states that if the death of the wife occurs in an unnatural way before 7 years of marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected ?to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called dowry death. Section 498A of the Indian penal code was specifically included in 1983 to protect women from cruelty and harassment. It deals with subjecting a woman to cruelty for any unlawful demand of property and valuable security or account of her inability to meet such demands. Earlier Section 498A of the Indian penal code required the groom and his family to be automatically arrested if a wife complains of dowry harassment. As this was widely abused the supreme court in 2014 ruled that arrests cannot be made without a magistrate’s approval. Protection of women from domestic violence act 2005 was passed in order to provide a civil law remedy for the protection of women from domestic violence in India. It deals with all forms of physical, verbal, emotional, economic and sexual abuse. It forms a subset of anti-dowry laws in India to the extent it is one of the reasons for domestic violence. In section 3 of the act all forms of harassment, injury and harms inflicted to coerce a woman to meet an unlawful demand for dowry have been specifically mentioned.

Recent Supreme Court Judgement regarding Dowry Death

In a recent judgement of the supreme court in Charan Singh @ Charanjit Singh vs The State of Uttarakhand on 20 April 2023the court ruled that the mere fact that the death of wife occurred in an unnatural way within 7 years of marriage in a matrimonial home is not sufficient to convict the husband of dowry death. The convicted husband had filed an appeal in the supreme court against the decision of the Uttarakhand High court which had upheld the trial court’s conviction. The Deceased was married in 1993 and died in 1995.After the death of the wife in her matrimonial home her father registered a complaint against her husband and in laws. The FIR stated that the deceased wife was killed on account of non-fulfilment of demand of motorcycle and land. The court ruled that to convict a husband of dowry death under Section 304B and 498A IPC harassment or cruelty to the wife should have been done by the husband with regards to unlawful demand of dowry and the death of wife must be reasonably contiguous to such unlawful demand of dowry and harassment to the wife .In the above mentioned case the court ruled that as there was nothing in the statement of the witnesses that any such demand for motorcycle or land was raised immediately before death therefore conviction under section 304B and 498A of the Indian penal code regarding dowry death?cannot be sustained.

Conclusion

Mere death of the wife being unnatural in the matrimonial home within seven years of marriage will not be sufficient to convict the husband for dowry.For conviction under dowry death the prosecution must prove that cruelty or harassment for the purpose of dowry or the failure to meet such demands was done by the husband or the relatives of the husband and that it was done within a reasonable time period from the death. Law makers need to make provisions in the law so that misuse of the law can be prevented and mental and physical health of a wife in a matrimonial home can also be safeguarded.

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