A Critical Analysis of the Misuse of an Anti-Dowry Law

Abstract

The Anti-dowry law, Section 498A was incorporated in the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 to protect the married women from a cruelty, marital violence, and dowry abuse is now becoming a source of blackmailing and harassment of the husband and his relatives. Some educated and empowered women are diverging the path of development to an adverse direction. This particular section is providing an unjustified power in the hands of some women for handling marital dis-putes which irreparably changes the life of husband and his parents. The present study therefore aims to study the deter-minant factors that are behind the misuse of section 498A of Indian Penal Code for which 190 respondents of the Amritsar district are interviewed by using a descriptive research design. The findings revealed that different factors such as Husband’s In-laws extra involvement into their marital life, Respondent wife’s authoritative nature, Wife’s attitude problem, monetary causes, and respondent’s physical disease are some of the rea-sons that is turning this shield into a weapon.