{"id":109479,"date":"2021-05-29T17:20:08","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T11:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=109479"},"modified":"2021-05-29T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T11:50:08","slug":"supreme-court-guidelines-on-section-304-b-of-ipc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/supreme-court-guidelines-on-section-304-b-of-ipc\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Guidelines on &#8220;Section 304-B&#8221; of IPC"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><strong>What is the News?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The Supreme Court in its recent judgement has widened the scope of Section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code(IPC). This section punishes persons accused of dowry deaths.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Data on Dowry Deaths in India:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dowry deaths accounted <\/strong>for 40% to 50% of homicides in the country for almost a decade from 1999 to 2018.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In 2019 <\/strong>alone, 7,115 cases of dowry death were registered under Section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>About Section 304-B:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Section 304-B <\/strong>was inserted into the Indian Penal Code(IPC) in November 1986.<\/li>\n<li><strong>According to this section, <\/strong>to make out a case of dowry death:\n<ul>\n<li>A woman should have died of burns or other bodily injuries or \u201c<strong>otherwise than under normal circumstances\u201d <\/strong>within seven years of her marriage.<\/li>\n<li>A woman should have suffered cruelty or harassment from her husband or in-laws \u201c<strong>soon before her death<\/strong>\u201d in connection with the demand for dowry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Punishment: <\/strong>The section punishes convicts with a minimum of seven years imprisonment extendable up to a life term.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Supreme Court Guidelines on Section 304-B:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Avoid <\/strong><strong>Absurd Interpretation:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Over the years, the courts had interpreted <\/strong>the phrase &#8216;soon before&#8217; in Section 304-B as &#8216;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">immediately before<\/span>&#8216;. This interpretation makes it necessary for a woman to have been harassed moments before she died.<\/li>\n<li><strong>On the other hand, the Supreme Court recently said that the<\/strong> prosecution needs to show only a \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">proximate and live link<\/span>\u201d between the harassment and her death to make out a case of dowry death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Need broader Reading of the Provision:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The lower courts should not take a limited approach <\/strong>in categorising death as homicidal or suicidal or accidental. The phrase \u201cotherwise than under normal circumstances\u201d in Section 304-B calls for a liberal interpretation of the provision, not the stricter one.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hence, Section 304-B not imply the narrow categorisation of death<\/strong> as homicidal or suicidal or accidental. Instead, it also includes non-categorised deaths \u2018other than under normal circumstances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Proper examination of Accused:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Supreme Court <\/strong>also raised concern about the casual way in which trial courts examine accused persons in dowry death cases under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The court said that the examination<\/strong> of the accused about the incriminatory material against him should be done fairly.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The court must put incriminating circumstances <\/strong>before the accused and seek his response. The accused should also be given sufficient opportunity to give his side of the story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/MShareArticle?OrgId=G3H8KDGP8.1&amp;imageview=0\"><strong>The Hindu<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the News? The Supreme Court in its recent judgement has widened the scope of Section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code(IPC). This section punishes persons accused of dowry deaths. Data on Dowry Deaths in India: Dowry deaths accounted for 40% to 50% of homicides in the country for almost a decade from 1999&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/supreme-court-guidelines-on-section-304-b-of-ipc\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Supreme Court Guidelines on &#8220;Section 304-B&#8221; of IPC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1351,1310,1760,9],"tags":[1581,1396],"class_list":["post-109479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-polity-and-nation","category-public","tag-po_9","tag-soc_5","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}