The fast changing man-woman cohabitation rules in India, especially in marriages have thrown wide open the sensitive issue of gender justice and even the presumptuous traditional judiciary turns sympathetic to males. In the light of growing incidents of failed marriages, live-in relationships and contractual cohabitation in urban India, the traditional sympathy in favor of females have come up for a nationwide debate and the burning issue is what is termed as reverse dowry.
When a girl and her family demand huge sums of money back from the husband and his family, earlier allegedly paid by them as dowry, as a settlement for a broken marriage, it is called reverse dowry. As the courts all over India have been flooded with such cases of failed marriages where reverse dowry demand is made, the debate over gender justice raises head as in most cases the judicial system and media sympathizes with the girl, legal experts say. This gender bias against the boy and his family has made reverse dowry as an extortion tool by the girl side and often than not the boy side is the harassed lot.
Legal experts maintain that in order to get the best settlement out of a failed marriage, the girl side seeks huge reverse dowry as streedhan (a girl's personal assets) even when the actual dowry was far low. Some legal experts have gone to the extent of declaring the reverse dowry trend as judicial terrorism and legal extortion in utter violation of the gender justice norms.
The Supreme Court judges have indicated that they too were seized with this issue and they asked the district judges to be liberal in such cases. Hinting at the pro-female mindset of judiciary in cases of failed marriages, judges said that there could not be a fixed formula to deal with all the reverse dowry cases. This liberal view of Supreme Court judges has been in continuation with their changing views and openness towards a changing society and cohabitation rules as it earlier warned against the misuse of dowry laws.
This view came after a number of cases were reported where the dowry law under the section 498a of the criminal procedure code, dealing with dowry harassment or cruelty to women for dowry and other reasons was grossly misused by the girl side.
Many lawyers admit that provisions of 498a is highly sympathetic to the women and that is why lawyers of the girl side in a failed marriage misuse it to get a quick and decent monetary settlement from the boy side. The dowry laws that favor women by nature are used as a sword to kill and not as a shield to protect as it should be".
Legal experts rue that section 498a has been used as a tool of revenge, bargain and blackmail. The threats of imprisonment of old mothers and sisters are issued by the girl side with help of police and usually the boy side coughs up the money to escape jail.
The gender justice issue, especially in the matrimonial cases has come up as a major issue and a number of male clubs and societies have sprung up in many parts of India crying hoarse about 'wife terrorism' and female harassment.
The judges now turning sensitive to the issue of gender justice and even issuing instructions for 'liberal' views on such cases only confirms the fact that gender justice is not merely a casual issue but posing to be a serious concern in fast changing Indian society that has been witnessing a see change in cohabitation rules, especially marriages.
