SC alarmed at abuse of dowry laws - provides direction
Mangalore Today News Network
New Delhi, July 03, 2014: Alarmed by the abuse of dowry prohibition laws, the Supreme Court July 2, ordered the police not to arrest a person mechanically after registering such cases and seek authorisation from a magistrate before detention.
In a landmark ruling set to provide relief to harassed men and their family members, the apex court said this rule would also apply in all cases relating to offences where the punishment was up to seven-year imprisonment.
“The fact that Section 498-A (cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code is a cognisable and nonbailable offence has lent it a dubious place of pride among the provisions that are used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives. The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested under this provision. In quite a number of cases, bed-ridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands, their sisters, living abroad for decades, are arrested,” a bench of justices CK Prasad and P C Ghose said.
The court directed that all the state governments would instruct their police officers not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498-A of the IPC was registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down by the law. The bench referred to Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code which lays down guidelines where the police could arrest a person without warrant.
The court said the police would record reasons before arresting a person like possibility of his absconding from law or committing repeat offences and seek authorisation from the magistrate who would also record his or her satisfaction for the purpose. “The attitude to arrest first and then proceed with the rest is despicable. It has become a handy tool to the police officers who lack sensitivity or act with oblique motive. No arrest can be made in a routine manner on a mere allegation of commission of an offence made against a person,” the bench said.