Indeed, marriages are made in heaven, but death by dowry, murder-suicide, and bride burning are symptoms of peculiar social ills, which have spawned like a “Black Death.” The word ‘dowry’ was defined in the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, which states that dowry means any valuable property or security given or agreed to be given directly or indirectly by one party to the other party in a marriage. If it is shown that shortly before the death of a woman, that woman has been subjected to cruelty or harassment by, or in connection with, any dowry claim, the court shall presume that such person caused the death by dowry under the section 304B, Indian Criminal Code. Now cruelty, as mentioned above, means any deliberate conduct that is of such a nature as to lead a woman to commit suicide or to cause serious injury or endanger life, or harassment to coerce her or any other person related to her to meet. ask. Cruelty includes both physical and mental torture.
Dowry deaths have a few characteristics, first, a woman’s death must be caused by burns or bodily injury, second, the death must have occurred within seven years of the marriage, third, the woman must have been subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or relatives. Fourth, the cruelty or harassment must be by or in connection with the dowry requirement. Lastly, the cruelty or harassment should have been directed at the woman prior to her death. There are few cases where it will not be considered as dowry, such as the usual payments and gifts, and in a recent Supreme Court of India verdict it was ruled that the demand for money and gifts from the parents of a girl married at the time for the birth of her child or for other ceremonies that are prevalent in society may be deplorable but cannot be classified as dowry.
Given the nature of dowry-related crimes, which are generally committed in the privacy of residential homes and in secret, it is not easy to obtain the independent and direct evidence necessary for conviction. Therefore, legislators took various legislative steps to plug the loopholes in the law. The offenses under the dowry prohibition law have now become recognizable and a police officer can arrest the accused of demanding dowry without a warrant and initiate criminal proceedings against the guilty party. The Indian Penal Code mentions the punishment for dowry, which is a term of imprisonment for a term not to be less than seven years, but which may be extended to life imprisonment. In VN Pawar v. State of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court mentioned that wife-burning tragedies are becoming too frequent. Police awareness mechanisms that prevent the commission of such crimes must be established if these horrendous crimes are to be avoided. Therefore, women must be educated and economically independent. The possibility of death by dowry is a pernicious social evil that has not yet been completely eradicated from society.
