Number of persons effected by 498a.

When one false 498a IPC case is filled it is filled on many members of husband’s  family including mother, father, brother, even old grand parents and kids, various courts has mentioned that disgruntled wives are using this law as a tool to frame as many as possible members of a husband’s family. Honable Supreme Court has quoted on this habit of disgruntled wives and said that it is in justice to quash the criminal proceedings. Reference-Geeta Mehrotra & Anr vs State Of U.P. & Anr on 17 October, 2012 http://indiankanoon.org/doc/125470413/

In 2013 118866 new cases were filled with an increase of 11.6% from 2012. Police in its process files charge sheets on many of them so the number of persons whose life is ruined is a very big. Have a look at the following-

• 222091 persons were arrested in cases of 498a IPC in 2013.
• 195283 persons were charge sheeted during the year 2013 in 498a IPC cases.
• 968728 persons went under trial during 2013 in 498a IPC..
• 773445 Persons under trial at the beginning of the year 2013.
• 833454 Persons in custody or on bail during the stage of trial at the end of the year 2013.

• 49064 Persons were in custody or on bail during the stage of investigation at the beginning of the year, but still 222091 persons were arrested inspite of Honable Supreme Court order to follow CRPC 41 very strictly in cases of 498a IPC. This figure increased by 15% and reached 56606 persons in custody or on bail during the stage of investigation at the end of the year.

• During 2013 in 93386 cases police submitted charge sheets and 195283 persons were charge sheeted i.e. 2.09 persons per charge sheet.

• Police have 92.3% rate of filling charge sheets in 498a cases this means when an FIR is lodged more than 2 persons are almost sure to be trapped in legal process.

• In 2013 out of 466079 cases only 45423 cases were finished (pendency of 88.5% as 412438 cases remained pending) so 115164 persons were freed from this legal suffering. Out of which only 17542 were convicted with conviction rate of 15% at lower court. These persons will approach higher courts and the conviction will go down more.

• Persons under trial at the beginning of the year were 773445 and the year ended with 833454 with around 8% increase in these numbers.

• 412438 cases were pending at the end of 2013 and number of persons trapped are 833454 i.e. approximately 2.02 person per case.

Data presented here is collected is from https://data.gov.in/

https://data.gov.in/catalog/persons-arrested-and-their-disposal-police-and-court-under-crime-against-women#web_catalog_tabs_block_10

https://data.gov.in/resources/persons-arrested-and-their-disposal-police-and-court-under-crime-against-women-during-2013/download

Below is the related data in table extracted from above links.

State/UTs	Crime Head	Persons in custody or on bail during the stage of investigation at the beginning of the year	Persons arrested during the year	Persons released or freed by Police or Magistrate before trial for want of evidence or any other reason	Persons in custody or on bail during the stage of investigation at the end of the year	Persons in whose cases charge sheets were laid during the year	Persons under trial at the beginning of the year	Total number of persons under trial during the year	Persons against whom cases were compounded or withdrawn	Persons in custody or on bail during the stage of trial at the end of the year	Persons in whose cases trials were completed during the year	Persons convicted	Persons acquitted
Total (All-India)	498A	49064	222091	19266	56606	195283	773445	968728	20110	833454	115164	17542	97622

Also references from earlier posts-
http://knavdeeps.blogspot.in/2015/07/pending-498a-till-2013.html
http://knavdeeps.blogspot.in/2015/07/draconian-498a.html
http://knavdeeps.blogspot.in/2015/07/what-we-are-getting-from-biased-laws.html

 (Views are personal)