Before the 1980s, India witnessed a disturbing rise in domestic cruelty and dowry-related violence against married women. Although the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 criminalised dowry, weak enforcement and deep-seated social norms meant that the law often failed to prevent harassment, injury, and even deaths within marriage. In response to these gaps, Parliament inserted Section 498A into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 1983 through the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 1983, explicitly criminalising “cruelty” by a husband or his relatives—covering both grievous physical/mental harm and harassment for unlawful demands such as dowry, punishable with up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine. Closely allied provisions followed, notably Section 304B IPC (dowry death, 1986) and evidentiary presumptions in the Indian Evidence Act to address the lethality of dowry-linked abuse. Together, these moves marked a decisive legislative turn from mere prohibition of dowry to penalising abusive conduct inside marriage.
In the 1980s, India experienced a significant rise in dowry-related abuse and domestic violence. Young brides faced cruelty—sometimes even forced toward death. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 1983 established Section 498A in the Indian Penal Code to safeguard women from mental and physical mistreatment within marriage.
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But while this law served genuine victims, it also created a legal gap—one that could be easily exploited, ensnaring innocent men and their families in false accusations. Did we create a legal system where one gender is perpetually the victim, and the other is always the accused?
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National surveys repeatedly show that intimate partner violence remains prevalent despite decades of law. Analyses of NFHS-5 (2019–21) indicate roughly one in four to one in three ever-married women report some form of spousal violence, with alcohol misuse by partners strongly associated with higher risk. These findings underline why criminal-law tools like Section 498A IPC were—and remain—essential, even as they cannot by themselves transform social attitudes.
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On the criminal-justice side, official crime statistics show that “cruelty by husband or his relatives” consistently forms the single largest share of IPC crimes against women. In 2022, India registered 4,45,256 crimes against women, of which 31.4% fell under this cruelty head (the 498A bucket). Put differently, over 1.4 lakh cases in 2022 were recorded under this category alone—far exceeding categories like rape by sheer volume.
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NCRB 2022: “Cruelty by husband or his relatives” made up 31.4% of all crimes against women under IPC. NCRB 2023 (provisional reports): again flagged it as the largest category of crimes against women by sheer volume.
Conviction rates remain alarmingly low:
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In December 2024, Bengaluru-based AI engineer Atul Subhash ended his life...
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Section 498A was designed to safeguard women from real harm. But when a law harms more innocent lives than it protects, reform is not just necessary—it’s urgent.
So the question remains: Can we genuinely deem this justice when thousands of innocent men, elderly parents, and children endure false claims?
Justice ought to benefit all—not merely one gender. Section 498A must progress, not to undermine women’s rights, but to guarantee that justice doesn’t morph into vengeance.
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