Tuesday, December 25

Law is a shield not a weapon.

One Indian woman committs suicide every four hours over a dowry distpute. This appaling detail was disclosed by the National Crime Record Bureau on Tuesday December 24.
Just can't help juxtaposing this with the phrase "legal terrorism" that i have often heard from my friends and seen in various news stories.
According to the data complied by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 2,276 women committed suicide because of dowry related disputes in 2006. comes down to six women ending their lives everyday. In 2005, 2,305 women committed suicide while in 2004, at least 2,585 such cases were registered across the country.
Statistics suggest that Madhya Pradesh topped the list for the fourth time with 585 cases, accounting for one-fourth of the total number of such suicides last year in the country.
Along with working on ways to eradicate this social malice can we not look at the misuse of the law to curb the women suicide rate
No doubt that dowry is a social evil but it continues to be a common practice in every strata of our society. The guilty should be punished but the law should not be allowed wreak personal vendetta. It should not lead to of the inncoent which sadly is a case on many occassions.
A court ruling while Describing such misuse of law as “legal terrorism”, said in 2005 that no one can be allowed to unleash frivolous proceedings as the provisions of Section 498A “are intended shield the woman against harassment. Not as an assassin’s weapon.”
Can we not have a check on the cases with the other perspective as well to empower women? When civilizations clash, it is certain that the laws, which run these civilizations, will also clash.

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