This Article is written by Author: Ipshita Goyal (Maharshi Dayanand University) & Co-author: Agresh Sharma (Symbiosis Law School)
Introduction
It is very well said that excess of anything is very dangerous. Whether it is of power or of freedom. The same is here that women have been given excessive freedom from the flexible nature of women-centric legislations. This has led to the misuse of such legislations by women and the worst consequences had to be faced by men. There was a good intention behind the formulation of women-centric laws to protect women’s rights but today it had become a bane for all men around India.
According to a survey, a maximum of males commit suicide due to mental trauma which they suffer from because of false allegations charged by their female counterparts than the stress of workload or any other reasons. Sec. 498-A, 376 of IPC, 1860 and sec. 125 of CrPC, 1973 have been mostly used by females to humiliate men. These legislations are made by Parliament to protect women from any kind of exploitation but the result of this backfired and women themselves started humiliating males. This can be the main reason that introducing legislation against marital rape is still a debatable topic.
Although the crime rate against women is very high in comparison to that of males, now- a -days these gender-biased laws have been more misused than used. Women use these laws as a weapon against males. All these women favouring laws have straight away women as a victim and males as a criminal. In such circumstances, sometimes an innocent male is held convicted and then it takes years to prove his innocence. Even some women have made it a means of making money. These legislations were introduced to safeguard women’s equality and freedom but are they doing their work correctly?
Women are using these laws just to satisfy their ego and mostly the cases are of molestation. Everyone in society thinks of harassment of women by males but no one gives light on that somewhere males are also facing humiliation by women. It is so because there is a mindset fixed that because a male is more powerful than a woman, so it is the woman who always has to suffer and not the male. They are not ready to believe that a woman can also harass a man.
Most laws that have been misused are sec. 375, 376, 498- A of IPC, Domestic Violence Act and Dowry Prohibition Act which had been a menace to man and his family. Legislature had formulated various laws for women but not a single law favouring males.
Some acts related to Women’s Safety and how they can be misused –
Dowry prohibition Act,1961[2]
This is used to protect women from Violence by not giving the dowry demanded by Groom’s side. But this can be misused by the women to make the groom’s family suffer by legal action. Many of women use this law to make the groom’s family afraid of it. And around 10% of the Dowry Cases were False, these cases were registered just to Torture the Husband and his family[3].
And in the Year 2015, around 3 Lakhs people were arrested under the offence of Dowry, but surprisingly only 20% of the Arrested person (accused) had been convicted, This report is by NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau)[4].
Domestic Violence Act, 2005[5]
The Ground for misuse is also present in this act as the statement given by women is considered without any evidence and it clearly shows the action is in favour of women[6]. Law should also change with the time now Men were the victims of Domestic Violence. Also, we have seen Johnny deep as a victim of Domestic Violence. And in this case again the Woman (the wife of Johnny Deep ) Amber Heard used Domestic Violence as her defence shield and want her husband Johnny Deep to be in Trouble[7]. Although Degraded the Reputation of the Famous actor in the Industry and make him mentally torture. In India, Women were misusing this law and with help of this tortured their husband.
In Major Singh & Anr. v. Sarabjit Kaur[8], Women filed a false case against her husband.
Also in Smt. Geetanjali v. Sri B.B. Anantha, Due to acquiring the Property of the Husband’s Wife filed a false complaint against him. Also mentioned is that Husband use torture and was not treated in a proper manner. But later, It is found that the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, use not as a defence but as a Weapon to get the property of her husband.
Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) – POSH Act, 2013
This Act can be used as a weapon by women and misused for some benefit. And this law is not gender neutral, it only supports women and not men. There were many men who also got harassed at the workplace. Some of the cases where men are harassed by his female boss for a sexual favour. This act should be Gender neutral so that the male part of our society will also get relief from the harassment in the workplace from the female counterpart. This act is more inclined towards Women it should be gender neutral.
Now let’s talk about some sections from India Penal Code, 1860 that covers this topic.
IPC Section 354: Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.
It says Assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty. But this section can be misused by the women against the men with mala fide intention. In many of the cases if unintentionally touches or pushes the woman then it will not amount to section 354 of IPC. Also, the provision under IPC can be used only by Women against Men which clearly shows that it is Gender Biased and can be misused by women against men. As the reason is that only Men can stalk a woman. This Statement itself shows how provision is gender biased in its Nature.
Also, the Bombay High Court said that If someone puts a hand on a women’s shoulders it is upon Women to consider the touch as Friendly, Brotherly or Fatherly.
This again made a clear ground for women to misuse by determining the nature of Touch.
IPC Section 375: Rape
This section talks about Rape, this provision is made in light of sexual abuse and harassment of women. It works as a defence shield for women against the offence of rape. This power is especially given to the Women for their safety against the heinous offences of Rape. But nowadays these powers were misused against men just for blackmailing, demand for money and many things. By doing this thing there is a misuse of power not as a defence but as a weapon against men.
This section nowhere covers what if a man is raped by a woman.
The Delhi Commission of Women published a report in 2014 which shows the rape cases filed between April 2013 to July 2014, in which 53.2% of the cases were false. There were some probabilities of False cases that were taking revenge on men, blackmailing for money and property. Infamous Bathinda was a woman who clearly stated that rape has been committed with her in a moving car which later came to be a false allegation.
Women were taking extra benefits from laws for their safety.
IPC Section 498A: Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty.
This section talks about Cruelty by the Husband or the relatives and family of the husband. This section is mainly for the Woman to use against the cruelty from her husband’s side and his relatives. But nowadays this defence shield of Section 498A is used as a Weapon and which ends up leading to blackmailing the husband and his relatives, demanding money and property.
In, Rajesh Sharma v. State of Uttar Pradesh, the court laid down some guidelines to prevent misuse of section 498A of IPC.
In Bibi Parwana Khatoon v. the State of Bihar (2017) 6 SCC 792, Court held that there is a false allegation under section 498A of IPC.
Conclusion
Women should be given due respect and should be treated as equals and not only women but every human being must respect each other. But some legislations in India are not gender neutral and are harassing men in order to protect the rights of women and also every man is bounded by these non-neutral Laws. In every case, men are always pointed out, without listening to them. I am not saying that always a woman is wrong but women are not always right. The legislature needs to see the loopholes in such laws, the judiciary needs to interpret them not literally but liberally and at last society needs to change this biased attitude towards men. This is a great weapon for women, and innocent men who were dragged into the case due to false allegations and misuse of power led to the torturing of men for money or property. If we talk about the current position of India about half of the cases were filed due to Mala fide intention and with a motive to destroy the men until they agree to women’s conditions.
From analysing all these problems, the main problem lies within the thinking of society as well as in the legal provisions, where both of these were not neutral in the case of men. Their demand is a Gender Neutral law so that equality will not only be summoned up to women’s rights but also have equality of provision for men. There is a necessity to re-look all the provisions which have severe consequences on males as merely a provision is constitutional this does not give a woman license to use it in any manner and destroy the entire life of any man. Court need to do proper enquiry and police proper investigation without presuming that the accused male is guilty and had for sure committed the crime without proper evidence. This could affect the social life of men. The unnecessary involvement of women’s rights activists had also broken many families so their unnecessary interruption should be abated. Even some women organizations have wrongly shown data and statistics and had taken a huge amount of funds from govt. in name of women’s welfare.
[1] I pleader , https://blog.ipleaders.in/criminal-consequences-violating-dowry-system-india/#:~:text=Misuse%20of%20Dowry%20Prohibition%20Act%2C%201961,-There%20is%20growing&text=According%20to%20the%20NCRB%20(National,case%20of%20Arnesh%20Kumar%20v. (18/06/2022 – 9:00AM) .
[2] The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 , http://www.bareactslive.com/ACA/ACT116.HTM , (18/06/2022 – 11:15AM)
[3] 10 pc of dowry cases false, govt mulls amending law , https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/10-percent-of-dowry-harassment-cases-are-false–48807.html , (18/06/2022 – 3:50PM)
[4] Times of India , https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/10-of-dowry-cases-false-government-plans-changes-in-law/articleshow/46649047.cms , (18/06/2022 – 4:00PM)
[5] The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 , https://indiankanoon.org/doc/542601/ , (19/06/2022 – 10:20AM)
[6] Rus Ervin Funk , Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence is a Men’s Issue , The Center for Women and Families , [19/06/2022 – 11:00AM] , https://www.thecenteronline.org/2016/06/29/sexual-intimate-partner-violence-mens-issue/ .
[7] Male domestic violence survivors say they feel the Depp-Heard trial is a turning point , https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/male-domestic-violence-survivors-say-feel-depp-heard-trial-turning-poi-rcna29742 , (19/06/2022 – 11:10AM)
[8] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/169181262/ , (19/06/2022 – 12:15PM)
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