Two months earlier, the Supreme Court (SC) passed a judgement reducing the severability of anti-dowry law under Indian Penal Code (IPC) but the now the SC has indicated that it would revisit the same judgement as it is affecting the rights of women.
On July, 27 the two bench judge of SC passed a judgement directing that in case of any complaint under section 498A of IPC the police will not make any immediate arrest unless they have verified the allegations made in the complaint.The Court further said that the immediate arrest without any verification can been as violation of human rights of innocent people.
The SC bench headed by Chief Justice Deepak Mishra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud is not in support of this earlier judgement, as according to the bench the constitution of buffer family welfare committees for the verification of complaints by the women against their husband or any relative of the husband has reduced the severity of Section 498A of IPC. The bench has issued the notice to the centre sought a response from them on the same by 29 October.
The observation is made by the bench while hearing a plea filed by Advocate Alok Singh on behalf a group of lady advocates of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra who formed an NGO named ‘Nyayadhar’.The plea raised objections to the judgement dated 27 and sought for the sharpness section 498A or else a helpful instrument like section 498A will become valueless for victim womens.
Advocate Alok suggested that the two out of three members of family welfare committee should be women and the third member should be a person holding master degree in social work. He further suggested that facts of the case should be recorded by the committee and the economic status of parties should also be considered by these committees.
On hearing the plea the bench noted that the earlier judgement of SC dated 27 July, 2017 has laid certain guidelines for arrest under section 498 of IPC an exercise that can be carried out under the domain of legislature. However, we are not in complete support of the view taken by earlier bench as it is liable to affect the rights of women.
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