Strongly worded petition by NFHS to Law Commission, on the reccomendation to make 498A IPC compoundable
07th July 2011 / Bangalore
To,
Chairman, Shri Justice P V Reddi
Law Commission of India,
The Indian Law Institute Building
(Opp. to Supreme Court), Bhagwandas Road,
New Delhi – 110001
Subject: Strong protest by “National Family Harmony Society®” on the recommendation of the Law Commission to make 498A IPC compoundable
About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16000 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.
There have been media reports recently which have indicated the intention of the Law Commission to make 498A IPC compoundable. This will further accelerate the breaking of families and give further encouragement to the greedy wives to file false cases.
A criminal case, and that too of the nature of an offence which deals with cruelty must not be compounded at any cost. If husband and his family members have done crime then they must be tried under the criminal justice system. If 498A IPC is allowed to be compounded then it will be mockery of the criminal justice system. In that case if any dispute arises between husband and wife due to whatever reason, 498A will be used to blackmail, threaten and for money extortion.
It is also surprising that before initiating discussion on such an important topic, Law commission has not given any News Paper advertisement as is done by Parliament Sub-Committees and our NGO came to know about the Law Commission initiative only by media articles.
Through media article, we also came to know that Law Commission has selectively invited suggestions from certain quarters. There are hundreds of NGOs like ours, who are working from many years to bring effective amendments to 498A IPC due to its heavy abuse and misuse. It seems none of the group or NGO has been invited for oral pleadings as is the common practice in law making/amendment process.
The heavy misuse and abuse of the 498A IPC is an open secret with hundreds of question being raised in parliament and hundreds of Judgment from Judiciary. We fail to understand that by making 498A IPC compoundable, how the misuse and abuse of 498A IPC will be prevented.
Thousands of families who had been falsely implicated by using this IPC section were hopeful and had great expectation that Law Commission will make some concrete suggestion to the government to stop the misuse of this Law. Thousands of husbands have committed suicide as they were falsely implicated in this Law but it seems that Law Commission is not able to see the agony, harassment and torture of these families.
Left with no other option, our NGO did protest by the way of “black flag” Dharna at Bangalore on 2nd of July which received wide media coverage and hundreds of calls/enquiries from various quarters. All the media coverage has been compiled at below location for your kind persual.
NFHS Press Coverage: Flash Dharna against Law Commission reccomendation tp make 498A compoundable
In response to the Law Commission’s earlier questionnaire, NFHS had sent following answer regarding question 8.
8) Do you think that the offence should be made compoundable (with the permission of court)? Are there any particular reasons not to make it compoundable?
Once a complaint is registered then the complainant should not have the option to withdraw it. If the complainant is allowed to withdraw the complaint then it amounts to blackmailing. Anyone with intention to extract money from husband will file complaint in police station and withdraw later when her demands are met. 498A must not be allowed to be used as a blackmail tool. Hence we strongly oppose to make it compoundable.
In view of the above discussion and reasons we strongly mark our protest to make 498A IPC compoundable and we will use all democratic means of protest so that efforts can be made to stop the heavy misuse and abuse of the 498A IPC which has been termed as Legal Terror by the Supreme Court.
With profound respects, Jai Hind !!!
P Suresh, President, 9880141531
National Family Harmony Society
Leave a reply to Srikanth Cancel reply
DO NOT COPY
Visitor’s Location
Live Feed
Recent Comments
 | Manish on Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar… |
 | Mahboob elahi on Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar… |
 | ChandraSekhar on No Quash but finish trial in 3… |
 | Harish Kumar tiwari on Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar… |
 | rocky on Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar… |
***Fighting Gender biased laws** **www.family-harmony.org*** *National Family Harmony Society* 498A HelpLine 9880141531 
Good work brother. May Flaws Commission also be set-up in India. May harassment of men/their families and blackmail end. May there be gender neutral laws in place of the present flaws. We will never give up this fight against feminazis…
Satish
9820976629
9220228092
[Mumbai]
It is clear to all including Law Commission of India that 498A is being misused heavily. Then, why the law commission of India not trying to take an honest step to stop its misuse, why?
It is unfortunate that our intellectuals are thinking that by adding the settlement clause between the victim and in-laws would stop the misuse of 498A (especially for Dowry law).
First decide who is the victim here, the wife, who is misusing the 498A or the husband, his parents and relatives who have been harassed by false 498A law.
What is the harm to implement a practical law, through which the misusers (498A, specially for Dowry law, DV Act, false RAP cases) can be prosecuted and punished if found guilty.
By implementing settlement clause in 498A cases the more and more scrupulous girls will file false cases and would get the settlement money very easily. At present time very less cases of 498A are decided by judiciary. Judiciary let the victims of 498A free or suggests to do compromise. And blackmailing to end the 498A is done through judiciary.
Why we should not make 498A bailable. At least check the image and past record of the family and husband before making arrest. Because the bail is the main instrument of blackmailing after all.
The old victims of 498A misuse will not got any relief after making 498A bailable. Because they have crossed this situation. But it would save our society and new victims. The victims of 498A misuse are increasing day by day and it may happen with anyone.
Everybody including judiciary knows that the 498A is being misused at large scale. But no body will take the action to stop this legal terrorism. This is our Great India and great Indians.
It is clear to all including Law Commission of India that 498A is being misused heavily. Then, why the law commission of India not trying to take an honest step to stop its misuse, why?
It is unfortunate that our intellectuals are thinking that by adding the settlement clause between the victim and in-laws would stop the misuse of 498A (especially for Dowry law).
First decide who is the victim here, the wife, who is misusing the 498A or the husband, his parents and relatives who have been harassed by false 498A law.
What is the harm to implement a practical law, through which the misusers (498A, specially for Dowry law, DV Act, false RAP cases) can be prosecuted and punished if found guilty.
By implementing settlement clause in 498A cases the more and more scrupulous girls will file false cases and would get the settlement money very easily. At present time very less cases of 498A are decided by judiciary. Judiciary let the victims of 498A free or suggests to do compromise. And blackmailing to end the 498A is done through judiciary.
Why we should not make 498A bailable. At least check the image and past record of the family and husband before making arrest. Because the bail is the main instrument of blackmailing after all.
The old victims of 498A misuse will not got any relief after making 498A bailable. Because they have crossed this situation. But it would save our society and new victims. The victims of 498A misuse are increasing day by day and it may happen with anyone.
Everybody including judiciary knows that the 498A is being misused at large scale. But no body will take the action to stop this legal terrorism. This is our Great India and great Indians.
Best regards
Dharam kumar
The future of this country is dark b’cause its rulers, law makers, decision makers etc are not prepared to learn from HISTORY. History is a big teacher and one who doesn’t learn from it is the BIGGEST FOOL.
It is an common knowledge now that most of the 498A cases are utterly false and are filed for extraneous purposes like extortion of money etc, yet the slumberness or reluctance of the competent authoritioes to amend the law atleast to prevent its misuse is SUICIDAL for this country.
I now bank only on God and pray, OH GOD! SAVE MY COUNTRY AND THE COUNTRYMEN.
Good work suresh. But do you really think that they will listen to us? I think they already decided upon the amendment and they are not willing to do the amendment. Let us wait for some more time till the result comes. Let us see if our families really have our fundamental rights in our country. ? I still love my country which played with me and my family’s dignity. If they dont want to make it bailable they should atleast punish the one who misued it. What does it should on the comissions part. I dont understand.
Regards,
Srikanth
8106471150
What Law Commission has done is reprehensibe and shameful. They somehow thought that they can hoodwink the public and appease the feminist lobby. If 498a criminal case can be compoundable, then ALL criminal cases must be compoundable. Then, all the citizens can happily file criminal cases on another and compound them by the blessings of CORRUPT judiciary, extracting huge ransoms in the process.
Shame on you Law Commission! Shame on you!!
We oppose compounding 498a. We demand scrapping this heinous, undemocratic, fascist, unconstitutional, anti-human-rights, uncivilized and barbaric legislation forthwith.
We at the Save Indian Family Movement invite all civic minded, human rights supporting citizens of India to join in our struggle to purge this monstrosity from our legislation!
It is really true that 498a is being misused openly and shamelessly and The Law itself is silent.
it is family terrorism of the worst kind worse than many killer diseases for unsuspecting unprepared families as it is misused as the law is silent means on thing and one thing only – the country has gone to the pigs