Legal Awareness Seminar
(coping with Misuse of Laws concerning Families):IPC 498a

by


Save Indian Family Foundation(SIF)

Mumbai Chapter
( Yahoogroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sif-mumbai )





13th August, 2006(3 to 6 p.m)





SIF: For Indian Family, Against Misuse of Marital Laws(Indian Penal Code Section:498a, D.P Act, etc.)





Our sites: www.saveindianfamily.org ; www.mynation.net ; www.498a.org
emails: help@498a.org , info@mynation.net , mail@saveindianfamily.com


P R Gokul : 9821414336 ; Contact: Jinesh Zaveri : 98 202 41589 ; Mumbai Helpline : 9224 33 55 77

______________________________________________________

Innocent Victims of IPC 498a & Marital Laws: Standing up for their Rights.

Seminar cum meeting on 13th August 2006 between 3.00pm-6.pm- At the Press Club of India (Near C.S.T(VT) Station), Glass House, Mahanagar Palika Marg, Mumbai –1.

Legal awareness seminar(coping with Misuse of Marital/Family laws): Conducted by Save Indian Family foundation(SIF). Laws like IPC 498a are misused and the Husband and his family get arrested and entangled in long-drawn legal proceedings. Arrests could happen even without any witness, evidence or police investigation, on the basis of just a false complaint by wife. Know how to take precautions and cope with these situations.

We have invited victims from all over India, who will be discussing their problems and would share their harrowing experiences with this law of 498a. Lawyers, Retired senior Judges and Police Officers have expressed their interest in attending this meeting and addressing the concerns of the innocent affected families. We Invite your representative to be present to know more about our movement called “SAVE INDIAN FAMILY”. A rapidly growing internet yahoogroup of 1100+ families. The regional teams in different states of India, have launched self-funded phone help-lines. The guys next door, who happen to be innocent victims of this Legal Terrorism, manage these teams.

A Brief about the Misuse of Section 498a by law-misusing Wives

23 yrs old section 498a of IPC was introduced to tackle the Dowry menace at large. But the trend over the years have proven this section as a failure. Observation of even Supreme Court of India is that these laws(intended to save a family) have been misused rather than used for genuine reasons.

The potency of misuse in 498a is unfathomable and highly destructive since the Police doesn't need any other supporting evidence or witnesses, other than JUST the wife's statement/complaint, to straight away arrest the Husband and his relatives
Major reason of misuse is that the “burden of proof is on the accused” and the “accused is considered guilty, till proven innocent”(opposite to the general legal Maxim which presumes “Innocent till proven Guilty”, as in all other crimes). This involves the mandatory arrests of all the accused without investigation on a mere complaint of an inconsiderate or cunning wife, against the innocent husband and his family members. Thus damage is already done without crosschecking the verity of the complaint. Generally this tool is effectively misused or threatened to be misused, by the divorcing wives to extract a huge alimony amount from the husband. This Non-bailable, Non Compoundable and Cognizable offence has had a conviction rate of just 2% over the years, which itself speak volumes about its low efficacy and usefulness. We are only trying to amend these laws in such a way that its genuine use will protect families, but its misuse does not break families apart like its happening now.


Even with so much of misuse and appeals the government is pretending sleep. The general opinion on this law is as follows:

1: Supreme Court of India on 498A stated, "The object is to strike at the root of dowry menace. But by misuse of the provision a new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used as a shield and not as assassin's weapon. If [the] cry of "wolf" is made too often as a prank, assistance and protection may not be available when the actual wolf appears."-it has unleashed a new form of Legal Terrorism as per Supreme Court

2. Kiran Bedi says: "Laws had been provided for the welfare of women. The police need not assist those who misuse or abuse the law meant for the protection of women."

3. Justice J D Kapoor Says: ‘‘There is a growing tendency among women, which is further perpetuated by their parents and relatives, to rope in each and every relative, including minors and even school going children of distant relatives.’’

4. Kolkatta High Court Justice S.P. Talukdar said the “dangerous” practice of misusing Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (cruelty on housewives by husbands and in-laws) should be immediately stopped.

5. NRI Journalist Kulbhushan stated "Filing a non-bailable dowry case under IPC 498A is easier than ordering a meal. But while a restaurant can refuse service, the police normally arrest the groom and the in-laws. While the Indian media is flooded with reports of dowry-related bride torture, it hardly mentions the horrific cases of suffering husbands at the hands of unscrupulous wives."

Our sites: www.saveindianfamily.org ; www.mynation.net ; www.498a.org ; www.forgottenwomen.org

emails: help@498a.org , info@mynation.net , mail@saveindianfamily.com, help@asha-kiran.com

Our Blogs: http://at498a.blogspot.com (all our awareness campaigns updated here),

We store/post all SIF Press Releases here, we request personnel from the Media to keep checking back at this blog: http://pr498a.blogspot.com , to be updated with all major press releases around the globe, released on behalf of respective SIF local chapters.

We request your active participation in this Seminar cum Member meeting, and to help us to spread the word to the world. Our Movement called “Save Indian Family or SIF”.

Contact: Jinesh Zaveri. Ph: 98 202 41589; P R Gokul: 9821414336; Mumbai Helpline: 9224 33 55 77.

Agenda

Internal Group members Meeting(identifying volunteers to share the work content in forming, registering and sustaining a Mumbai based NGO for representing our concerns)- 2 to 3PM
Seminar(3 to 5 PM)

1.. Introduction of the Guests, the Issues involved in 498a, Objectives and Structure of the meeting - Mr.P.R.Gokul- 5 Mins

Guest Speakers are requested to share their experiences in dealing with 498a and DP(Dowry Prohibition) law misuse cases, precautions, defense/offence steps that victims could take, what is the alternative for 498a or how it should be amended to prevent misuse and victimization of innocent families

Member Speakers would Compliment/clarify what the previous speaker had mentioned, shares glaring instances where misuse of law is blatant and obvious in his own case, some points on 498a(prevention, defense, offence) and what we could be aiming to do as a group

2. First Guest speaker: Mrs.Anamika V.Vichare-Sarang (Advocate High Court and Family court, Mumbai, Editor: Purushmukti, Legal Advisor to PHSS(Purush Hakka Saurakshan Samittee) - 10 mins

3.. First member speaker: - Mr.M.R.Gupta - 5 mins

4.. Second Guest speaker(to be announced later): 10 mins

5.. Second member speaker - 5 mins

6.. Third member speaker: Mr.Kuldeep Singh Thind , PHSS(Purush Hakka Saurakshan Samittee)- 10 mins

7.. Third member speaker: Compliments/clarifies what the third speaker has said, mentions salient points of some 498a cases he has counseled as a helpline volunteer, and to bring out the "Anatomy of a Typical 498a case"(the typical psychology of the misusing wives& relatives(single daughter, not used to caring and sharing, pampered, tantrums, etc.), their motives(get-rich-fast, plain sadism, pressure tactics to establish upper hand in future family life!), family situation(negative influence of a lot of divorcees/sinister minds in family/friends circle, money-minded, rogue-politician(or such occupations!) type family background, old-wives techniques imparted by girl's mother to get husband under 'control') etc. which drives a girl to falsely implicate her husband & some points on 498a(this section to be split between question answer sessions as appropriate to maintain a coherent flow)- Mr.Jinesh Zaveri - 5 mins initially and continued later as the situation demands, complimenting the flow of the interactive session.

8.. Q&A , Interactive session - 1 hour

9.. Some expert members may speak in between the Q&A Session capturing the missed-out points until then, new directions to be considered etc.- a few minutes to compliment the discussions.

5 to 6 P.M is kept for interactions(including Q & A) between members, the guests may choose to leave or not, as per their convenience.

Any suggestions may be sent to drmura @ hotmail.com , to make the most out of this event.

Join SIF Mumbai Chapter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sif-mumbai/join

For more Links and Resources to fight against Misuse of Marital Laws like 498a: Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sif-mumbai/links , and access the folder “Resources and Links” (this is updated continually, join SIF-mumbai yahoogroup for access to this link)

Sites
http://mynation.net, http://www.498a.org, http://forgottenwomen.org

http://www.saveindianfamily.org,
Main Yahoogroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveindianfamily

24-hour All India Helpline Number:+91-9243473794

Volunteer Helpline Numbers(limited contact hours,send SMS if unavailable)

Delhi : 9871734980, 9810611534, 9911119113, Bangalore : 80-55334135
Mumbai : 9224335577, Jaipur : 9352562456, Calcutta: 033 25217318/25347398
emails: help@498a.org , info@mynation.net , mail@saveindianfamily.com, help@asha-kiran.com


See Ongoing Awareness Campaigns: http://at498a.blogspot.com

SIF Press Releases updated here: http://pr498a.blogspot.com

Thank YOU…….. SIF: Lets make families happier, and hence the Nation Greater


Feedback and Suggestions

General

1. Name (Assumed name is fine, for privacy):

2. E-mail address (must be reachable, authentic):

3. Contact numbers and Location(Country too, if NRI, so that we can link you to a local SIF chapter):



4. 498a registered (Yes/No, if yes, please provide month and year, remarks):


5. Case in court (Criminal or Divorce: If yes, how long, month and yea, remarkrs):


6. Your Website or any links or Resource , Person you want to share so that we can utilise the same to better our own situations as a group:

7. Any other Suggestions/Inputs for improving SIF activities and results:


For the Media Personnel

Your Company name, nature of Media and Role/Designation:

The Direct contact of any Person or Cell(in your company) which is appropriate and could be interested in associating with SIF:

Any other Suggestions to improve our visibility and to convey our messages and activities better to the Public, and to make these efforts materialize as actual results: