Bill Is Ready To Make IPC 498A Compoundable Offence

The NDA government at the Centre is working towards making offences under the Indian Penal Code's Section 498-A compoundable with court permission. An amendment bill will be introduced in the next Parliament session, said a senior bureaucrat.

Under the section, a man and his relatives can face imprisonment for up to three years as well as fine for sub ecting his wife to cruelty over dowry . The amendment will allow both parties to work towards a compromise.

Junior Union home minister Haribhai Chaudhary said his government had accepted the proposal to make the section a compoundable offence with court permission in accordance with recommendations of the Law Commission and the Malimath Committee when NCP member and former mayor Vandana Chavan raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha.

“A draft note for the cabinet which inter alia seeks to amend IPC's Section 498-A, making it compoundable, has been sent to the legislative department to draw up the draft bill,“ the minister added. The section, introduced to protect women from dowry harassment, has often been used to settle scores.

This is a move in the right direction. While brides being harassed for dowry is a blot on Indian society, any measures to deal with the problem must also recognize the potential for misuse. In our effort to make laws against dowry more stringent -arguably even draconian -the scope for misuse has grown. 

That this is not uncommon has been acknowledged not only by the courts but also by women's rights activists and even a state Commission for Women (Orissa). Some change in the law is clearly needed to curb such misuse. Making it a compoundable offence is one such option, but we should also have provisions that act as a strong deterrent against misuse. 

It could be stipulated, for instance, that where a complaint is proved beyond doubt to be false and motivated, the accuser must face a jail term.