The apex court sets the tone

If the Supreme Court has changed its earlier stance on death sentences by prescribing them for dowry deaths, the reason evidently is the chilling nature of this form of crime where a helpless young woman is first mentally and physically abused by her in-laws and then put to death by several of them together, including occasionally the husband. Unlike the deaths as a result of property disputes and personal rivalry, where the element of premeditation is not always present, dowry deaths are apparently contemplated even before the marriage since the would-be bride is seen as someone who can meet the “lust for money”, as the court has said, of her future in-laws. If she cannot do so, there is no respite for her, for she will be unwilling to run away because of the social stigma among conservative families. Yet, her remaining in her new home is an invitation to torture and death.

What is doubly unfortunate about these deaths is their increasing occurrence. Hence, the apex court’s observation that the “expression, ‘rarest of rare’, does not mean that the act is uncommon. It means that the act is brutal and barbaric. Bride killing is certainly barbaric”. Since it is also a “social crime” which is the result of the “commercialisation of our society”, the judges also feel that the “time has come when we have to stamp out this evil with an iron hand”.

Arguably, the latest pronouncement at the highest level will induce the courts to be more strict in future. In the case, for instance, which was being reviewed by the Supreme Court, the trial court had acquitted the dead woman’s husband and mother-in-law. It was only later that the high court convicted them under the Dowry Prohibition Act and awarded life sentence. The Supreme Court has said, however, that although a “death sentence should have been imposed”, it was not done because “no charge under Section 302 IPC was levelled”. It is to be hoped that in future, there will be no such reprieve for the guilty in the aftermath of the apex court’s views.

There may also be a need to consider whether murder after rape can also be excluded from the ‘rarest of rare’ category since the brutality and barbarity of the crime is no different from that of dowry deaths. In the case of rape and murder, too, a helpless young woman is the victim.