Ashish Swaroop Bhatnagar, an advocate in the Allahabad High Court with expertise in family matters, says higher judiciary must take note of rampant misuse of 498A. His views:
The recent Atul Subhash suicide case has jolted the conscience of the nation. It was disheartening to view his last video, where he shared the injustice, exploitation and trauma that he had been facing at the hands of his in-laws and wife, who used legal loopholes to cause untold misery for the now-departed soul. My thoughts and prayers are with his bereaved family. I strongly hope that the family gets justice, but I am aware that this process remains cumbersome and hectic.
It will not be an exaggeration to say that Section 498A, which has been bifurcated into Sections 85 and 86 in the BNS, has been a preferred legal tool for extortion and is grossly misused in most of the cases filed in family-related disputes. The reason is: its stringent provisions leave little or no space for the husband to reach a genuine and mutually acceptable settlement. Atul Subhash is merely one of the thousands cases being dragged in our courts.
I believe that it was a law made with noble intentions – it was meant to curtail the rising dowry deaths in the early 1980s – but I am sorry to say that today it has acquired the reputation of being the most abused legal formula ever. And as the cases of divorce in India are rising at an astonishing pace, I have no hesitation in admitting that that many disgruntled women, aided by unscrupulous lawyers, routinely misuse this provision to harass their husbands and his relatives.
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The interesting part is that higher judiciary is well aware of the situation. Once a Supreme Court judge even termed it as “legal terrorism” and went ahead to warn that it was being used as an assassin’s weapon rather than being used as a shield against atrocities. As per statistics, more than 2.7 million people, including 650,000 women and 7,700 children were arrested between 1998 and 2015 just because the law prescribes immediate arrest of those named in a complaint and leave the onus of proving not guilty on the accused.
Though revolutionary measures need to be taken, especially in cases pertaining to family matter, this section needs immediate reforms like making it bailable and gender neutral as it has been continuously exploited over the years by disgruntled individuals whose sole intent is to extort money. I had personally witnessed its abuse even within the police and legal fraternity and those filing false cases with the sole intention to settle matters financially.
There is a need for accountability in the legal system and the courts should approach such cases with greater caution and conduct thorough investigations before proceedings. People who are victims of false cases have recourse so that they can file counter complaints for malicious prosecution and defamation and can also seek damages.
In extreme cases like suicide, there could be grounds against those responsible and it should include harassment and abetment to suicide. Also measures like mandatory pre – using counselling, stricter verification procedures before arrest, protecting innocent men and their families from being targeted unfairly and making the offense compoundable to prevent frivolous complaints should be adopted.
As told to Rajat Rai
