Source : India legal
An anticipatory bail plea of a man was rejected whose wife had committed suicide, because of dowry demands, the Additional Sessions Court in Jammu called for setting up of marriage counselling centres in all districts of Jammu and Kashmir to provide marriage and relationship counselling to couples and their families in view of the increase in dowry-related crimes. The accused put forward an anticipatory bail in a case registered at R. S. Pura Police Station in Jammu under section 304B, 498A and 120B of IPC. The Court stated that the proposed counselling centres should be entrusted with the responsibility of pre-marriage and post-marriage counselling to ensure resolution of marital misunderstandings between the couple’s families.
The order states: “Keeping in view the seriousness of this growing crime in the society, through this order, I express my concern to the government to set up marriage counselling centres in every district, where, especially before marriage, the couple along with the family members should be called and given guidance on how to treat each other in a new relationship on the basis of social, moral, and religious codes.”
Judge Tahir Khurshid Raina observed - The crimes related to dowry is on the rise and despite all efforts there has been no decline in the crime rate. The fact is that unless society is not ready to oppose it, the laws will not succeed. Additional Sessions Judge rejected the bail plea, saying that illegal demands were being made from the married woman. She was being tortured and fed up with that torture, she committed suicide. The 32-year-old deceased was also the mother of a four-year-old child. The judge said that in such cases it is desired that if the husband harasses the house then the elders should come forward and stop him.
Therefore, the Court rejected the Anticipatory bail plea.