NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

India's dowry ban being misused by 'disgruntled wives', says court

Independent
4 Jul, 2014 05:55 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Photo / File / AP

Photo / File / AP

India's highest court has sparked bitter controversy after it said laws set up to protect women from demands for dowry payments were being misused by "disgruntled wives" to get back at their husbands.

A small community of men's rights campaigners welcomed a ruling by the Supreme Court in Delhi which said men should no longer be automatically arrested when a woman alleges dowry abuse and that there must be sufficient evidence.

But activists fighting to protect women against abuse and violence said the court ruling was "retrograde" and would make women more vulnerable. Some claimed the court was out of touch. The payment of dowries by brides' families was banned in India in 1961, but the practice remains common and may be spreading.

According to anecdotal evidence, the size of dowries is increasing and reports suggest that grooms' families often demand everything from money to jewellery and even new cars before cementing a marriage agreement.

In 1983, Section 498a of the Indian penal code was introduced to offer more protection to women. It said any husband or member of his family convicted of cruelty or violence associated with attempting to force such payments should face up to three years in jail.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Men's rights campaigners have claimed the law is often misused, frequently when relationships break down. On Wednesday, the court sided with them, saying the law had become a "weapon" for discontented women.

"The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested," said the court. "In quite a number of cases, bed-ridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands ... are arrested."

Rajesh Vakharia, of the Save Indian Family Foundation, said he welcomed the ruling. But Mr Vakharia, who says he spent six days in custody after being falsely accused of demanding dowry when he got married in 1999, said the court had acted too late. "Too many people have already suffered from frivolous litigation," he said, from the city of Nagpur. He fought and won his case but was prevented from seeing his child for four years.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Jyoti Tiwari, from Delhi, is still fighting accusations of demanding dowry, levelled by the widow of her late brother.

She said her former sister-in-law had claimed her brother, Anurag, and other members of the family had demanded dowry after the relationship broke down and the sister-in-law moved back to her parents' home. Ms Tiwari's brother later died in a road accident, but she said she and her parents are still fighting the allegations in court. "The law is supposed to protect women, but I am a woman, my mother is a woman," she said last night.

Yet women's rights campaigners say the anti-dowry laws are essential and the court's decision will make it less likely for women to report abuse to the police. Ranjana Kumari, director of the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, said government figures showed that at least 91,202 women had been killed between 2001 and 2012 in incidents relating to dowry demands. She said the alteration of the law would dilute women's protection.

"Usually the police act very slowly or don't act. This will affect women," said Dr Kumari, author of Brides Are Not for Burning. Brinda Karat, a member of the national parliament and a veteran women's rights campaigner, said nobody supported misuse of a law but that the court had been wrong to change its nature.

Discover more

World

Woman sentenced to hang gives birth

28 May 05:54 AM

She said it appeared that the court was out of touch on the ground in India where demands for dowries had spread to communities in which the custom had not been previously practised. "I think the effect will be disastrous," she said. "The police will now have an alibi not to take any action."

The ruling by the bench, consisting of two male justices, comes as India continues to undergo sometimes rapid social changes and where more women are entering higher education and the workplace and, sometimes, becoming more aware of their rights.

- UK Independent

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Leaked audio: Trump says he told Putin he would ‘bomb the s*** out of Moscow’

10 Jul 06:17 AM
World

European court to rule in Semenya sports gender case

10 Jul 05:00 AM
World

Former leader in solitary cell after being arrested again

10 Jul 02:36 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

European court to rule in Semenya sports gender case

European court to rule in Semenya sports gender case

10 Jul 05:00 AM

Semenya, 34, won Olympic 800m gold in 2012 and 2016.

Former leader in solitary cell after being arrested again

Former leader in solitary cell after being arrested again

10 Jul 02:36 AM
'One-in-a-million miracle' twist in search for missing Australian surfer

'One-in-a-million miracle' twist in search for missing Australian surfer

10 Jul 02:23 AM
Trump's tariff strategy faces deadline as trade deals fall short

Trump's tariff strategy faces deadline as trade deals fall short

10 Jul 02:14 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP