Misuse of Section 498A IPC and the Quest for Procedural Fairness: A Constitutional and Judicial Analysis with Evidence from NCRB Data

Abstract

The Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 1983 enacted Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 to curb the rising incidence of cruelty, dowry harassment and domestic violence against married women. This provision has in fact played an important role in enhancing legal protection of victims, yet concerns of its misuse have increasingly dominated judicial discourse. There have been allegations of false or exaggerated complaints, implicating distant relatives, and using criminal proceedings as a means of coercion, which have raised important questions concerning procedural fairness, and the balance between victim protection and the rights of the accused. This study analyses the legislative intent, judicial interpretation and contemporary application of Section 498A in the larger framework of the Constitution to understand the evolution. It fills a research gap in the existing literature which has studied the protective intent of the provision or the allegations of misuse, with little attention paid to integrating constitutional principles and the recent developments in law under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. The study is based on doctrinal research methodology, with empirical analysis of the data available in public domain. The study analyses the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, reports of the Law Commission, statistics of NCRB and other credible secondary sources. The study ends with the contention that the continuing issue is not whether Section 498A should be retained, but how it should operate in a system that adequately shields actual victims and at the same time stops misuse of the criminal process.