Why supreme court calls S.498A as "Legal Terrorism"?

25 reasons “Why IPC 498A is Anti-Social?”
1 It is handled under the Criminal law for marriage related matters and not under Civil Laws.

2 Non-bailable warrant does not require proof before arrest. No investigation necessary. This exposes the vulnerability of the accused taking away their basic human rights.

3 Even those who were not part of the 'day-to-day' family life could be named and arrested on one complaint, which can also include pregnant women and children.

4 Accused is presumed guilty until proven innocent. No where in the world it is so.

5 Gifts are sometimes misunderstood as dowry. Who decides that the gift exchanged were 'gifts or dowry'?

6 It is non-compoundable which means that the complaint can’t be taken back that hinders any scope of reconciliation between the couple.

7 After a man is accused of 498A, he will not take his wife back later.

8 Old parents who lived with dignity and respect have to live with the stigma of harassing their daughter-in-law for the rest of their lives.

9 Groom’s relatives don’t find a suitable bride after they are accused under 498A

10 Most of the cases are filed because the husband refuses to throw his parents out of the house at the wife’s demands.

11 Husband’s job is at risk when he is accused under 498A who could even be the only breadwinner of the family.

12 The health of the old parents dangerously deteriorates after they are arrested in a 498A case.

13 Some even commit suicide for not able to withstand the depression and frustration of been falsely accused.

14 Old parents after 498a case become very apprehensive and advice their son not to marry again.

15 The family ends up paying a very high price to settle the case, the money that was saved for the parent’s health.

16 Most often the lawyers tend to take the family for a ride to extract as much money as possible.

17 The possibility of a woman over-reacting on a trivial matter in the family is never considered as a reason of complaint.

18 A woman tries to get divorce proceedings faster by filing a 498a case even if no dowry was demanded.

19 The witnesses (neighbors) tend to support the woman for not getting into a police case. They even fear of been accused by the woman if they don’t support the woman.

20 Some women marries an NRI and slaps a 498A case only to extort large sum of money

21 Even after knowing that the complaint can be false, police tend to support the woman and asks the man to settle the case with a financial compensation.

22 The case can easily linger in the court for years and only the groom’s family has to pay the price.

23 498A case can be filed even after the divorce, which only means that the accuser wants to demand money legally apart from maintenance.

24 There is no prohibition clause in the 498A law that would stop women to misuse it.

25 It is nearly impossible to file a case of defamation on the accuser because the police will not register the case and it would be hard to prove it.
Note :The existence of dowry deaths in the rural areas is not the reason for lenient laws as understood by women organizations. The law is already unfair, biased and inapplicable. The true reason for dowry deaths in rural areas is poverty and under-developed civilization. Dowry deaths still flourishing in the rural areas and misuse of 498a law is flourishing in the urban areas. Unwillingness of the women’s organization to alter the law so that misuse of law can be stopped is evident. On the contrary, women organizations are planning to strengthen and increase the severity of the 498a law to curb dowry death, which is absolutely preposterous. One must not forget that the chunk of the GDP comes from the urban cities where these laws are prevalently misused. If the misuse of laws still continues then the social infrastructure will collapse which will have a direct unfavorable impact on the country’s economy. If the law can’t curb dowry deaths, can’t even stop misuse, then what is the use of such a law that causes millions of people to suffer ?


Source:http://www.498a.org/top25.htm

Unenumerated Fundamental Rights-Does it really exist ?

A common misconception among the people is that their rights come from the Constitution. Even lawyers and judges are guilty of believing this, oftentimes suggesting that whether a right exists or not depends on whether it is listed in the Constitution. Law-enforcement agents read criminal suspects “their constitutional rights,” which leads some people to infer that the Constitution is the actual source of people’s rights. Suppose the Constitution had not been enacted. Would that mean that people would not have the rights that are enumerated in it? No, it would not mean that. The existence and protection of those rights did not depend on the Constitution.

Unenumerated Rights are Rights that are not expressly mentioned in the written text of a constitution but instead are inferred from the language, history, and structure of the constitution, or cases interpreting it. In the US, this is specifically protected by the 9th Amendment. The text of 9th Amendment is reproduced below:

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Justice Arthur Goldberg put it in the famous privacy case of Griswold v. Connecticut, which involved a state statute prohibiting the use of contraceptives:

"The language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments....

To hold that a right so basic and fundamental and so deep-rooted in our society as the right of privacy in marriage may be infringed because that right is not guaranteed in so many words by the first eight amendments to the Constitution is to ignore the Ninth Amendment and to give it no effect whatsoever. Moreover, a judicial construction that this fundamental right is not protected by the Constitution because it is not mentioned in explicit terms by one of the first eight amendments or elsewhere in the Constitution would violate the Ninth Amendment....

Nor do I mean to state that the Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government. Rather, the Ninth Amendment shows a belief of the Constitution’s authors that fundamental rights exist that are not expressly enumerated in the first eight amendments and an intent that the list of rights included there not be deemed exhaustive."

The US position is comparable to Irish position. In the Irish Constitution,Article 40.3 expressly protects unenumerated fundamental rights. But a similar provision cannot be found in our Constitution. Our Apex Court in the case of PUCL v. Union of India(AIR 2003 SC 2363), has accepted the existence of unenumerated fundamental rights. This is surely a welcome step. It wold be apt to quote Justice K.K. Mathew's words from the decision in Kesavananda Bharati: "Fundamental rights themselves have no fixed content, most of them are empty vessels into which each generation must pour its content in the light of experience."

Medical Negligence - Guidelines to be followed

The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India has issued, in the case of Kusum Sharma v. Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre (decided on 10-02-10), guidelines to be followed while deciding a case of medical negligence.

For the full text of judgment please visit ANSWERINGLAW

Link- http://answeringlaw.com/php/displayContent.php?linkId=1130

Why oppose BRMS - Do not the rural people have a right to healthy life ???

Medical Services in rural India suffers from shortage of doctors. To address this  issue, The Union Health Ministry came up with a new solution. Now they will offer a new course called Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery [BRMS]. The course would be offer in three-and-half-year shorter than normal MBBS course and will not have any specialization. The Medical Council of India is currently working on the syllabus, and the first batch will be recruited next year.

On one hand the health care in metros and big cities is quite advanced. On the other, rural areas where 60 per cent of the Indian population resides does not even have basic health care (primary care).The MCI put forth the proposal to start this course, so that students from rural areas can be enrolled for the same, who can then serve in the district hospitals and the primary health centres in these areas. The MCI came up with this proposal in order to meet the shortage of doctors in rural areas. While some States have welcomed the proposal, the IMA pointed out that it would create a new cadre of doctors who were not as qualified as their urban counterparts.

These arguments are only efforts to monopolize the medical field. In rural areas people need to travel hundreds of kilo-meters even to get primary health care facilities. Do not the rural people which constitutes the majority of the population, have a right to get good health care facilities which can be considered as a facet of right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. 

Why not regional benches for SC ???

Disagreeing with the Law Commission’s recommendation for setting up four Supreme Court regional benches, Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan said on Saturday that he did not favour the “disintegration” of the Supreme Court. The Law Commission which is in favour of setting up regional benches has observed:

“The advantage of setting up Benches is that this can be made effective without any delay since the constitution of Benches is a matter within the purview and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court itself. If the judge strength of the zonal benches is confined to two judges, each zone will require only six judges which means that only 24 judges will be required for the four zones and other judges will be available in the apex court which have a Constitution Bench working on a regular basis.”

The number of cases pending at the apex court has recently crossed the 50,000 mark.Since the accumulated cases pertaining to a particular region would be dealt with by the particular zonal Bench, the apex court would be free to deal with only constitutional cases such as interpretation of the Constitution, matters of national importance such as references made by the zonal Benches to larger Benches due to conflict of authority or any other reason, cases where the interests of more than one State are involved such as inter-State disputes on land, electricity, water, etc. Reference made under Articles 143 and 217 of the Constitution, Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections, suits between two or more States, etc.”

The Law Commission also suggested that all PILs from any part of India should be decided by the apex Constitution court to ensure no contradictory orders were issued and also to halt the mushroom growth of cases.

It referred to various reports submitted by the parliamentary committees recommending such regional Benches and said: 

“We have tried all the measures to reduce the backlog of cases and the result appears to be far from satisfactory. The time has come when the entire judicial set-up will have to be re-hauled and refurbished in order to make the goal of speedy justice a pulsating reality."

The common man will have to suffer unless and until the monopoly of Delhi Lawyers over the Apex  Court are put to an end !!!