What we are getting from biased laws?
Woman in our country have 49 biased laws to use or misuse.
Most of them are misused. They are made to provide JUSTICE. But are these laws are used to get justice or
are used as mere tool to settle personal scores, harassment and to earn money.
Let us answer these questions after analyzing the data we have. Let us interpret from the data of NCRB
published in 2013 and see how.
“A total of
3,09,546 cases of crime against women (both under various sections of IPC and
SLL) were reported in the country during the year 2013 as compared to 2,44,270
in the year 2012, thus showing an increase of 26.7% during the year 2013. These
crimes have continuously increased in reporting during 2009 - 2013 with
2,03,804 cases in 2009 and 2,13,585 cases in 2010 and 2,28,649 cases in 2011,
2,44,270 cases 2012 and 3,09,546 cases in the year 2013.”
If we go by the
Percentage variation in 2013 over 2012 from Table – 5(A) we will find some
shocking figures
Increase in
crime rate
|
|
Rape (Sec. 376
IPC)
|
35.2%
|
Assault on
women with intent to outrage her modesty (Sec. 354 IPC)
|
56.0 %
|
Insult to the
modesty of women (Sec. 509 IPC)
|
37.2%
|
Cruelty by
husband or his relatives (Sec 498a IPC)
|
11.6%
|
These figures will present a
picture in front of us which shows that crime against women is increasing very
rapidly.
Questions
arise??
(1) Are these laws useful if not
able to check the crimes?
(2) Why do we have such law which
on one side not able to check the crimes and on the other side crime is
increasing day by day?
But whenever somebody talks about
scraping these biased laws government is not ready to this as many feminist
organizations and NGO working for women opposes it.
Now let us go more into the data
of NCRB published in 2013
Let us look at
the investigation and Charge sheeting rate the work police is considered to do.
Charge sheeting rate in NCRB data of 2013 shows below
Charge
sheeting rate
|
|
Rape (Sec. 376
IPC)
|
86.4%
|
Assault on
women with intent to outrage her modesty (Sec. 354 IPC)
|
86.8%
|
Insult to the
modesty of women (Sec. 509 IPC)
|
98.1%
|
Cruelty by
husband or his relatives (Sec 498a IPC)
|
92.3%
|
This means police is doing some
investigation and after arresting the accused police is forwarding the charge
sheet to the court to punish the accused. Now where is the problem?
Now let us go to
the work done at the level of court
Disposal
|
Pendency
|
|
Rape (Sec. 376
IPC)
|
16.6%
|
83.4
|
Assault on
women with intent to outrage her modesty (Sec. 354 IPC)
|
14.3%
|
85.7
|
Insult to the
modesty of women (Sec. 509 IPC)
|
23%
|
77
|
Cruelty by
husband or his relatives (Sec 498a IPC)
|
11.5%
|
88.5%
|
And what results
after long trials in court is the conviction or acquittals. Let us see the conviction
rates of these crimes
Conviction
rate
|
|
Rape (Sec. 376
IPC)
|
27.1%
|
Assault on
women with intent to outrage her modesty (Sec. 354 IPC)
|
25.7%
|
Insult to the modesty
of women (Sec. 509 IPC)
|
32%
|
Cruelty by
husband or his relatives (Sec 498a IPC)
|
16%
|
Now where is the problem? -
(1)
Police
is arresting and filling charge sheets in the court and such a high rate of
charge sheeting shows that police is considering whatever has been alleged by
the victim to be true. Mere a very low percentage of accused are not charge
sheeted.
(2)
Court
is not in hurry and taking more than enough time for the trial on the basis of
charge sheet, evidences and statements of victims. Pendency of on an average
85% shows that court is taking 5-7 years at least for a case under this “Crime
against women”.
This raises questions-
(1)
Such
a low figures of conviction rates seriously raises question on investigation
done by police who filled charge sheets without proper investigations.
(2)
These
cases being state cases so initiated by police on victims application raises
questions on mentality that if victim is a women state considers whatever told
by her to be true.
(3)
Laws
have serious technical defect which considers mere statements as proof that are
not enough to prosecute anybody in court of law.
Now let us see what results in
all this. Below covers the first three heads as somehow they are same-
Court acquits Amity rape accused, says evidence cooked up
Court acquits man,
spares woman for filing false rape case in Delhi
Should
a man acquitted of rape be addressed as a ‘rape case survivor’?
http://www.newsgram.com/should-a-man-acquitted-of-rape-be-addressed-as-a-rape-case-survivor/
Worst to see was below-
Dimapur
lynching: It was ‘consensual sex’ not rape, says Nagaland govt report http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/dimapur-mob-lynching-victim-was-never-raped-nagaland-govt-tells-mha/
False cases behind Delhi's tag of rape
capital: Court
Finally a PIL was filled in
Bombay High Court claiming that one of the
reasons for the over 75% acquittal in rape cases is the registration of
"false cases", it seeked guidelines while registering rape charges
after a substantial delay or due to false promise of marriage.
Let us discuss on the fourth one
that is about crime called “Cruelty by husband or his relatives (Sec 498a IPC)”.
It accounts for 34.8% of total crime against woman, the largest shareholder in
the head “Crime against women”.
As per the data collected from
More
than 62,000 married men committed suicide in year 2011 alone, as per official
records of the National Crime Records Bureau, an entity under the Ministry of
Home Affairs, India.
More and more men are resorting
to this alternative because of severe mental, physical and economical abuse in
strained marital relationships. The worst however is the legal torture that men
of this country are subjected to - courtesy section 498A of IPC. Any woman of
this country can file this section against her husband, his parents and relatives
(howsoever distant they are), at any point of marriage (even after 22 years),
get them arrested and make them a puppet in hands of police, media and
judiciary. Even if it’s a false allegation, a person has to undergo he trial,
is considered guilty until proven innocent. The only way out for a husband’s
family, if implicated in a false case is either to give in to the demands of
the women (property, cash and any other fancy demands) or fight the case with
the system for next 5-6 years at least. Even the Supreme Court of India has
accepted the misuse of IPC 498A and termed it as "Legal Terrorism".
The stories and news links of
many of those who have been martyrs of marriage is-
Now let us analyze what these
laws are giving us-
(2)
Suicides
which happens due to these case when innocents are trapped https://twitter.com/search?q=%23martyrsofmarriage&src=typd
(3)
Pendency
and burden to judiciary.
(4)
Legal
terrorism as termed by Honable Supreme court for 498a IPC http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1172674/ for settling
the cases.
(5)
Large
number of arrests for which Honable Supreme court required to enforce CRPC 41
strictly in case of 498a IPC http://indiankanoon.org/doc/2982624/
Are they giving justice to
anybody for whom they are made? The question remains unanswered still….!!
So are these laws need not to be
scraped or amended so as to check the crime as well as check the fake cases
that are filled to extort and harass others. What about the dignity of man and
his family who is falsely accused in cases and after suffering for so many
years gets acquitted. Many Men’s Rights activists are fighting for the same and
asking the government to scrap or amend these laws. As no punishment is given
to false case filers adds to the number of false cases filed without fear. It
is very high time government must look seriously into this matter and act
before it is too late.
(Views are personal)
India had became world hub of Legal Terrorism.
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