DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT SECTION 498-A IPC AND ITS COGNIZANCE IN SAFEGUARDING INTERESTS OF WOMEN IN INDIA

Section 498-A is an offense under the Indian Penal Code, of 1860. It was brought into the IPC in 1983 to stop cruelty to married women because of dowry. Husband or relatives of the husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty, whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine. The term cruelty has been broadly defined to include acts of harassment with the intent to pressure a woman or her family into meeting any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security, as well as acts of bodily or mental harm to the woman’s body or health and also any willful conduct which is of such nature as is likely to drive the woman commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health. The harassment based on the woman’s ability to pay the dowry falls under the purview of the section’s final subsection. One element of the cruelty is engineering a circumstance in which the woman is motivated to take her own life. Essentials of section 498-A, to apply certain prerequisites to be met, it’s essential that • The woman should be married, this provision was added to shield wives and female relatives from abusive treatment at the hands of their husbands and/or male relatives. • That woman must have experienced either brutality or harassment. • The term cruelty can refer to a wide variety of behaviors. • To demand a dowry is harsh in and of itself. Such brutal harassment should have been demonstrated by either the spouse or the husband’s family, if not both. • S. 498-A, enticing or taking away or detaining with criminal intent a married woman whoever takes or entices away any woman who is or whom he knows or has a reason to believe to be a wife of any other man, from that man, or from any other person having the care of her on behalf of that man, with the intent that she may have illicit intercourse with any person, or conceals or detains with that intent any such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine or with both.