Letter 2 Mr. Law Minister on HUNGER STRIKE against misuse of 498a and anti-men laws..!!

To

The Honorable Minister,



Dr. M. Veerappa Moily,

Ministry of Law and Justice

4th Floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhawan,

New Delhi – 110 001



Subject: HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST MISUSE OF IPC 498A, ANTI MEN LAW.

REVIEW OF IPC 498A AS PER SUPREME COURT DIRECTIVE



Respected Sir,



In the last 60 years of Independence, many efforts have been made,

many measures taken and many laws passed for uplifting, empowering and

protecting women, who, as a group, were considered weak and

disadvantaged. While proudly championing women’s rights, the society

also tacitly approved the propagation of anti-male sentiments and

policies by “radical groups” and the resultant diminution in value of

men’s lives and the blatant violation of men’s rights.



While the blatant misuse of laws like IPC 498A and Domestic Violence

Act has been well-documented, women’s organizations and the Government

are still touting them as tools for ensuring women’s empowerment and

gender equality. In reality, these laws are not about equality at all,

as they are specifically designed to treat men and women unequally. In

fact, not even all women are treated equally under these laws. A brief

look at the assumptions of these laws is enough to understand why they

are unfair, and how they violate basic human rights.



On various instances, Supreme Court of India, has issued direction to

the Government of India to Review IPC section 498 A, namely:



1) At the time of delivering the judgment in case of CRIMINAL APPEAL

NO. 1512 OF 2010 , (Arising out of SLP (Crl.) No.4684 of 2009) in the

case of Preeti Gupta & Another vs State of Jharkhand & Another, the

Hon’ble Supreme Court of India had stated the below with reference to

section 498a and its huge misuse .

In Para 34 :-

.... Before parting with this case, we would like to observe that a

serious relook of the entire provision is warranted by the

legislation. It is also a matter of common knowledge that exaggerated

versions of the incident are reflected in a large number of

complaints. The tendency of over implication is also reflected in a

very large number of cases



IPC 498A has a strong bias against women as well and the extent of

Women themselves getting arrested in a so called women protection law

are:



Table 1: No of WOMEN Arrested in IPC 498a in last Five Years

Women arrested in Year No of Arrests

2004 27832

2005 28745

2006 31253

2007 35667

2008 37369

TOTAL 160866

Source:NCRB



The Indian suicide statistics as well is a strong reflection of state

of Indian married men.



Suicide Statistics of year 2009



MARITAL STATUS MEN WOMEN TOTAL % MORE MEN Ratio

Never Married 17738 10063 27801 76% 1.76

Married 58192 31300 89492 86% 1.86

Widowed/Widower 2848 2674 5522 7% 1.07

Divorcee 635 613 1248 4% 1.04

Separated 2058 1030 3088 100% 2.00

TOTAL 81471 45680 127151 78% 1.78

Source: NCRB



I, Dashrath M.Devda, President, Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi

Sangh, strongly protests against the misuse of IPC 498A, DV Act, IPC

304B, IPC 306 and all other women centric laws. We have called for a

Hunger Strike and I, have been sitting on Hunger Strike on behalf of

my NGO, since May 15, 2011. Today it is more than 120 hours of my

Hunger Strike.



To prevent torture of Indian married men and their families against

the misuse of Anti-Men laws, our Demands are:



• Close down Crime Against Women Cell

• Constitute National Commission for Men in lines of National

Commission for Women

•

Remove the word “relative” from the definition of IPC 498A. No

relative should be dragged in the dispute of husband and wife.

• Stop extortion under IPC 406 in the guise of Streedhan

• Mediation in marital disputes should not be handled by Police Officials.

• Simplify and ease out the Divorce procedures to stop suicides and homicides.

• No maintenance to wife who has left the matrimonial home.

• All matrimonial litigations should be tried in one court.

• Stop judicial bias towards women

• Amend DV Act of 2005

• Penalty for misusers of IPC 498A

• Stop TV serials promoting family disharmony



As per” SC Directive” as mentioned above, we want a Time Bound review

of 498A, otherwise we would go for “Jail Bharo” Andolan from May 23,

2011.



Regards,





Dashrath.M.Devda

President

09925834516



Cc:

Her Excellency Smt. Pratibha Patil

President of India,

Rashtrapati Bhavan,

New Delhi – 110 001



Dr, Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister of India

South Block, Raisana Hill,

New Delhi-110 001