The Supreme Court seems to have bowed down to pressure from women activists groups, and the recent comment on Men seems to be an aftereffect of the same. CJI S A Bobde on Friday denied anticipatory bail to a husband accused of dowry harassment, sternly observing that “cruel men” don’t deserve relief.
The comment has sparked controversy, since though the husband appeared to have a good case for relief, however, the CJI-led bench decided to go purely by the woman’s allegations.
Husband’s Defense
The husband claimed the accusations were a response to his police complaint about nude photographs of his wife being shared by another man. This happened when the couple was estranged, he said.
The husband’s counsel said the woman had shared hundreds of her nude photographs with the other man during the period of estrangement in her own marriage and that the allegations of dowry harassment, when not a single penny was taken or demanded as dowry, were one-sided.
The bench dismissed the husband’s anticipatory bail plea and said,
If she has shared her nude pictures with someone else, you can divorce her. But you cannot treat her with cruelty.
When the husband’s counsel argued that custodial interrogation was not needed since allegations in the FIR were one sided, bench comprising of CJI Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said,
Allegations in an FIR are always one-sided. We have never seen an FIR which is jointly filed by complainant and the accused.
The husband now faces arrest, while his parents who too were accused of dowry harassment were granted anticipatory bail by Rajasthan court.
Background:
A group of more than 4,000 women’s rights activists, groups and citizens have written an open letter to the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, demanding his resignation for the recent statements he made while hearing two different cases in the Supreme Court – asking a rapist to marry the minor victim and justifying marital rape. The letter also demanded Bobde retract the words he said in the Court and tender an apology to all the Indian women.
MDO Take:
- We have always maintained the Supreme Court verdicts are final and one has to respect the law
- However, has Supreme Court succumbed to pressure in the above case, overlooking critical aspects of landmark judgement in 498A arrests (read at the end of the article)
- Will Supreme Court reject every single dowry harassment bail application in the future since allegations are always one-sided?
- Has the comment ‘Cruel Men’ come as a counter to immense pressure on CJI due to his recent case comments?
- If the above are true, indeed Men and their families in India have no hope left because irrespective of whatever the conduct and behaviour of estranged wife, it is only and only the husbands who will suffer at the hands of gender biased laws
ALSO READ –
http://voiceformenindia.com/in-the-law/arnesh-kumar-vs-state-of-bihar-anr/
http://voiceformenindia.com/in-the-law/can-sexual-intercourse-between-man-and-wife-be-called-rape-supreme-court/
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