Report 202 – Proposal to amend Section 304-B IPC Dowry ... - Jeywin

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case. The tenets of penology demands that punishment must be
proportionate to the gravity of the offence, pragmatic and
adequately deterrent, having due regard to its overall
implications from all relevant angles, social, political and
economic etc. The question relating to the adequacy or
otherwise of the punishment for dowry death may, therefore,
have to be considered in this backdrop. The punishment for the
offence of dowry death is imprisonment for not less than seven
years that may extend to life imprisonment. Now the question
is whether capital sentence be added to it as dowry deaths are
certainly most abhorrent. If we carefully examine the provision
of Section 304B, we will note that the offence there under is in
a way fiction of law, whereby the offence of dowry death is
deemed to have been committed if certain set of conditions are
satisfied in a given case. These conditions are four in number,
namely;
(i) There is a death of a women caused by any burns
or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under
normal circumstances,
(ii) The death of the woman has taken place within
seven years of her marriage,
(iii) Soon before her death, the woman was subjected to
cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative
of her husband,
(iv) Such cruelty or harassment has been for, or in
connection with, any demand for dowry.