Our Indian Legislature consists of various legislation that were once developed as an ameliorative but soon became a source of harassment in the society. During the traditional times the dowry system was the most prevalent system in the society as men were the sole earner of the family but now as the women have also became a bread earner in the family, there comes a decline in the dowry cases. But to much of astonishment, there came a rise in the filing of false cases of cruelty against the husbands. There is a famous saying, “Behind every scar, lies a story”. But the story of the scars that are left on the husband, after being falsely framed by her wife in any gruesome case, is not heard by the society. The cry of men and his family that they are innocent are left unheard by this cruel society, who from the traditional times had this root developed in their mind, that women are always the victim and the men always the accused. But, no one should deny the fact that now the tables have turned, society has developed and the submissive women now have became dominant. The men who were earlier the attacker now have become the sufferer.

Section 498A of Indian Penal Code 1860 equivalent to Section 85 and Section 86 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 primarily deals with the cruelty subjected to a married women by her husband or his relatives. It was basically provided as a shield to the married women to protect her from the pathetic reality of the domestic violence occurring within the four walls of a house in the ancient era. But in today’s modern era with the rise of financial independence of women, growing education system, modernization and false and overhyped radical feministic view, this shield has been converted to a hot weapon for the women or any of her relative against the husband or his family. It has became an advantageous instrument for wife to settle personal scores against the husband and his relatives.

Before dwelling in the depth of the misuse of Section 498A of Indian Penal Code 1860, let’s first engage ourselves to understand what does our legislation says about the concerned section:

Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

Explanation — For the purposes of this section, “cruelty” means—

Section 498A of IPC, 1860 was inserted in the legislation in 1983 as a part of Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, owing to the rising instances of death of women due to “accidental kitchen fire” but it was later determined that the fatalities were deliberately caused by the husband or his relative for the dowry harassment or mental cruelty of married women. But now it has somewhere became a venegeance or a simple way to get out of a wedlock. This section has became a curse to the roots of marriages. The justice system has seen an evident rise in the filing of false cases under Section 498A of IPC by women or their relatives either to blackmail the husband to carry out any of her negative or unreasonable demand , or to dominate the husband, coercively influencing him to separate from his parents or transfer his property in the name of his wife, the other reasons can be that the women who came into wedlock due to her parents force now wants to opt out of the marriage and thus abuses 498A to obtain a divorce from the husband.

It must be perceived that although Section 498A was fueled with good intent and was proved to be a blessing for the simple and innocent souls who have been wounded by their husband but, the execution of the same is carried out in such an unjustified way that it has caused hindrance to achieve coveted end. The shield provided to the women now has taken a shape of a sword which makes it difficult for the married man to tackle thus, making it invincible. Justice’s principle is that it should be utilized to shield the weaker and make sure that the wronged is given a fair opportunity to rebut but when the wives accuse their husbands below Section 498A IPC by creating the offence non bailable and cognizable, if the person is innocent he doesn’t get an opportunity quickly to urge justice and “justice delayed is justice denied”

In 2003 Malimath Committee Report[2], it was duly observed by the committee formed by the Home ministry in 2000 that,

” There is a general complaint that section 498A of the IPC regarding cruelty by the husband or his relatives is subjected to gross misuse and many times operates against the interest of the wife herself. This offence is non-bailable and non-compoundable. Hence husband and other members of the family are arrested and can be behind the bars which may result in husband losing his job. Even if the wife is willing to condone and forgive the lapse of the husband and live in matrimony, this provision comes in the way of spouses returning to the matrimonial home. This hardship can be avoided by making the offence bailable and compoundable.

The Code may be suitably amended to make the offence under Section 498 A of the I.P.Code, bailable and compoundable. “

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Sushil Kumar Sharma vs Union of India[3] observed that “the object is to strike at the roots of dowry menace. But by misuse of the provision (Sec 498A) a new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used a shield and not assassins' weapon. If cry of "wolf" is made too often as a prank assistance and protection may not be available when the actual "wolf" appears.”

The NCRB Report[4] reveals that a total of 111,549 cases were registered under Section 498A of IPC. Among these cases, 5,520 were deemed false by the police and 16,151 cases were closed due to reasons such as mistake of fats or law, insufficient evidence or civil disputes.

No matter how optimistic and benevolent intention was there of the lawmakers in drafting the Section 498A of IPC, but over the time, it has substantially been reduced to a puppet of harassment and torture. There is no denying in the fact that there are a lot of cases in which the actual female victims are more as compared to men but still there are a lot of cases observed by the Indian judiciary that are proved to be fake and filed on a mala fide intention. The apex court is continuously taking efforts to effectively distinguish between the false and actual cases of Section 498A IPC and thus, urging the concerned authorities to bring about a change in the same. There have been numerous judicial pronouncements that emphasized on the widespread abuse of the above mentioned law.

Some of the judicial precedents are:

Thus, one should agree now that the provisions were mandatorily required to deal with the abuses and mishaps the women faces posts her marriages by the husband or his relatives in regards to their greed for dowry or any other unreasonable demand, but now the tables have turned. The provision which was earlier a safeguard for the women now has become a disproportionate boon for a handful of females. Earlier due to insufficiency of data and resources, many cases went either unreported or did not get the proper legal remedy but as they are now being recognized, it is been observed that many innocent spouses and their families have impacted by the false reporting of cases under Section 498A of Indian Penal Code, 1860. Thus, now it has become really important for the concerned authorities to provide an indemnity to the male member as well so that his rights are not pointlessly contravened. It is although a bitter but the ardent reality of the Indian globe that neither the society nor the law values the voice of an injured men. The society has a stigma related to it that the husband is always wrong and greedy for the dowry from the wife and thus if any husband is reported for cruelty to his wife, though proved innocent by the court, but would never get a clean chit from the court of societal justice. He would always be seen as a culprit and would be marginalised by the society, no matter if he is innocent or guilty. Thus one should understand that the filing of cases under several sections of code, e.g. being Section 498 of Indian Penal Code,1860, or Section 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act,1961, leaves a huge impact on the accused and his family.

Consequently, one should acknowledge that if the misuse of the rules of marital violence are to be discouraged then the court and legislature should make some refinement. Some of the suggestions are :

It can be very well proved now that misuse of Section 498A IPC is not a rumour and that in today’s era women can very well form a conspiracy against their husband and their families and register them under a false rule. Most of the cases still remain unresolved and the square measure of husbands paying maintenance to their wife just because he is husband doesn’t mean he is to blame for all the expenditures and benefits of the wife as one has to for sure agree on this point that ladies are scammer more than men in the society. This section is used by the wives to extort some cash from the husband and sympathy from the society. Section 498A IPC is surely for the protection of wife but also a harassment to husband and the in-laws by a spouse.