Why Indian men shouldn’t marry? Part 1: 498a

I have already explained what MGTOW stands for in Indian context and what are the different levels of MGTOW. In this series of articles, I will try to explain why Indian men shouldn’t marry. We will first begin with most draconian of laws out there: The infamous 498a.

There are several laws made in India post independence, and most of them have been made for appeasement and vote bank politics, with very little provision to put checks and balances on their use. Most of these laws are blatant discrimination based on Gender ( hence the hashtag #GenderBiasedLaws ) aided by Article 15(3) of the Indian constitution, which allows the State to make any special provisions for women and children. One such law is 498a which was supposedly made to protect women from Dowry Harassment post marriage. However, the 498a IPC doesn’t even mention the word “dowry“

It is nothing but the harshest Domestic Violence law in the whole world. Indian Court has called the misuse of this law as “Legal Terrorism” and Supreme Court has said its ruining Indian Marriages. Also, a woman can file 498a any year after marriage. I have seen cases filed 15-20 years after marriage. So men who are in so called “Happy Marriages” now, keep your guard up. Now we will see how it can destroy married men in India.

Cognizable, Non Compoundable & Non Bailable

IPC 498a is a very harsh section, on par with heinous crimes like Murder or Rape. It is Cognizable, which means police have to register a FIR when they come to know about the “crime”. So as soon as a woman reaches the police station, police happily convert her complaint into a 498a FIR. It is Non Compoundable, means once FIR is registered, there is no way to quash it unless you get it done in High Court. Quashing is almost impossible unless the wife agrees to go with the husband in High Court (except Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). It is Non Bailable, means the man can’t get a Station Bail, police will have to bring him in front of Judicial Magistrate within 24 hours of arrest. Now in most cases, police arrest the husband (and sometimes his family) on Friday, so that he spends a weekend in Police Lockup. However, Supreme Court has issued Section 41-A guidelines in case of crimes having less than 7 years punishment like 498a, and it mandates police to serve 41-A notice to the accused and if he complies to that notice and joins the investigation, he will not be arrested. However, in many states, these guidelines are not followed and arrests do happen. And in many cases, the lawyers and even police are suggesting wives to include IPC 377 (unnatural sex) in FIR so that 41-A notice needn’t be served. Also, National Commission of Women has already recommended to increase punishment of 498a to 10 years, so that blatant arrests can resume. Latest Law Commission report mentions this and I can bet that whenever the much touted Law Reforms happen, the punishment will be increased to 10 years.

Parents/Siblings/Relatives can be booked

Yes, in their infinite wisdom, the persons who drafted this law have allowed women to book Husband’s parents, siblings, distant relatives, cousins and even the children of the sibling in 498a complaint. There have been cases when even 2 months old babies have been booked and had to apply for bail. If husband has a brother who is yet to get a job, his career aspirations are basically ruined if he has a criminal case on his head. Same goes for husband’s siblings settled outside India. No other country on this planet has such a provision. Basically husband’s entire family is on the mercy of his wife.

No Evidence required and no punishment for False accusations

Many men have knowledge about Indian law only through movies. They think that if there is no evidence against them or if they have counter evidence, they can stop FIR from being registered or punish the wife for false allegations. Reality is, their evidence is not even sniffed by Police once wife’s complaint is received. FIR is filed, and chargesheet is done and sent to court after “investigation”, and the husband gets to show his evidence in the trial as part of his defense. This stage comes in trial in 2-3 years if he is lucky. Also, the Judge and even the Public Prosecutor know that the case is fake, but they keep going through motions like typical Indian Government machinery. And once the husband is acquitted after 5 years of trial (conviction rate is only 5% all over India), it is rarely mentioned the case was false, and the acquittal is usually based on insufficient evidence. So there is absolutely no gain for the husband from 498a. At best he can use it as a ground for divorce as filing false cases is considered mental cruelty.

Media openly declares everyone as criminals after FIR is registered

Indian media is well known for its biased reporting and sensationalist headlines, fueled by political propaganda. Most of the journalists lack basic etiquettes and moral fiber, and are ready to publish anything to keep their media running. Indian Public too has some sort of weird fetish of reading/viewing news about crimes on women, so most of the TRP and views are given to Crime on Women news. So as soon as FIR is registered, the journalists readily print news about the Dowry Harassment complaints, and name and shame entire list of accused in their reports. Husband can pretty much expect himself and his family being featured in one of the local newspaper and news portal right on the next day after FIR. Some families find this extremely humiliating and are unable to recover from public shaming that occurs, as rest of the Blue Pilled Indian society considers them as monsters based on mere news alone.

CAW Cell/Bharosa Cell Harassment

In some Norther States and some cities in Western India, before 498a FIR is filed, the Crime Against Women (CAW) cell or Bharosa cell invite the husbands for counseling, based on the wife’s complaint. These places are nothing short of hell, and husband is openly asked to comply to wife’s demands or face the music. If the wife has filed the complaint in her home state, husband has to travel 1000s of KMs for these useless sessions, adding more to mental and physical agony. The sooner these cells are closed down or forbidden for counseling for matrimonial issues, the better.

Life is made hell for NRIs

One big warning to all NRIs: Never ever marry an Indian citizen woman, under any circumstances. There have been cases where women have lost DV cases in US courts, and have come back to India just to file 498a, and went back to US again to resume their life. Look out circulars are issued, passports are impounded, and many NRIs loose their jobs. Though recent judgements have mentioned that look out circulars or red corner notices should be issued in rarest of rare cases, but still it is not completely followed.

Lawyer Fees and Judicial Procedure

498a is a great source of income for lawyers. They earn a ton through anticipatory bail proceedings, failed quashing attempts, regular bail, 498a trial, and the failed attempts of Defamation and Malicious prosecution on false case filing wives. Most lawyers charge money per number of accused, so more the accused, more money they make. Also, the entire court process can be cumbersome and draining. For no fault of the husband and his family, they are treated as criminals in court premises. They have to get people to stand up as sureties during Bail proceedings, and some states like Maharashtra have absurd rules like the sureties should have a Ration Card. Good luck finding sureties who have Ration Cards readily available. So people have to end up with cash sureties, which can vary from 15,000 to 1 lakh per accused, entirely based on how Judicial Magistrate was feeling that day. This results in lakhs of money being stuck in court, as interest free deposits, till the trial ends.

Conclusion

The number of cases registered under Section 498A was 1,04,551 in 2017; 1,03,272 in 2018 and 1,25,298 in 2019. 2020 data is yet to be published, but numbers are expected to be over 1,40,000 owing to Lockdown and married couples spending more time with each other. These numbers will keep on increasing year on year, as more and more women will become aware of the weapon they can use to make their husband and his family bow to their demands. I have just mentioned some of the main pain points of 498a, and how it can destroy a man mentally, physically and financially. There have been many suicides committed by husbands in last 20-30 years due to harassment from 498a, but Government and Society doesn’t care. So it is up to men, whether they want to subject themselves to post marriage litigation hell or have a blissful life.

Simplest solution to avoid this risk: DONT MARRY. In the next part, I will cover another major weapon used by wives: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 and CRPC 125.