Introduction:

I along with many others in the country are pained to see the plight of Indian girls at their in-laws' house. In many cases, the girls when not able to cope with the disrespect and brutality then they, in despair, resort to ending their lives. They commit suicide either by hanging or by burning themselves to get relief from the atrocities they faced. Sometimes they end their lives by swallowing huge quantities of sleeping pills and consuming poisonous pesticides.

The reasons for these saddening incidents are many. Even today, after putting many efforts into eliminating the menace but yet no positive sign is observed for improvement. The researchers when believe that only by proper moral education this can be controlled then also it is also found that girls are being tortured in highly educated families. The problem is much more severe with poor, illiterate and semi-educated families in rural areas.

Social System:

In our Indian system, after marriage, a girl is required to move to her husband's house leaving her near and dear ones, own cultures, own customs and has to adjust herself in a new family. She needs to learn their cultures, their customs and their lifestyle as quickly as possible. She has to take responsibility of the kitchen soon after her arrival and needs to satisfy all family members with their demands. The situation is almost the same in both rural and urban areas.

She starts facing a barrage of obstacles in the new environment. The very first moment she faces the criticism about the quality of gifts brought from her father's house for the senior and junior members of in-law's house. The jibes and taunts are unbearable but she has to swallow it patiently without uttering a single word. Then these taunts and jibes for every moment of her movement make her life miserable. It is really sad but true that the peculiar behaviour of the members are getting the tacit support of the head of the family. It appears that they all enjoy their sadistic behaviour and try to establish that their cultures, and systems are the only best in the world. The in-law family is not ready to appreciate the bride or the bride's family. The newly married girl remains silent with the hope that the situation will be normal in the coming days. But the situation speaks otherwise. The in-law family members always find fault with the new girl for every small little cause. The new member thus becomes embarrassed and puzzled but tries to pick up the customs and cultures even the situation gets worse day by day for the in-law's attitude.

Reasons for leading to death:

The girl feels captive. She cannot spend her own time and always needs permission for every little job of her own.

She is not allowed to be intimate with her husband.

She has to get up early in the morning and is required to serve morning tea to all members including seniors and juniors.

She needs to make breakfast for all the family without getting a supporting hand.

She has to face criticism for the taste of the food prepared and has to accept the taunts and jibes of her in-law family.

The in-law family does not hesitate to take the name of her parents in their taunts and jibes.

The girl is not allowed to wear modern casuals, instead is being asked to wear the traditional dress as it was in dogmatic times, when their own children can have no problem wearing Western outfits.

The educated girl is asked to relinquish her job at school, college, or office for the smooth and disciplined running of the family.

The girl after leaving her job becomes completely dependent. Leads a life like a parasite which takes her to depression.

The in-law family does not give her any free time to pursue her talent of singing, dancing, making portraits etc. that she learnt at her father's house.

The same in-law parents have different view of their own daughters and this partisan attitude brings all unhappiness to this young lady.

In many cases the in-law family asks the girl to get monetary support for purchasing wealth, property etc. from her father's house which the daughter objects, causing discomfort.

Many times the girl does not disclose her pitiable condition to her parents, so they become ignorant.

Sometimes the parents of the girl do not give support and ask her to continue by compromising her dignity.

Her relatives also give advice for sacrificing her personal desire and to continue with her in-laws.

Getting all unworkable suggestions, the girl has no other choice than to accept the inhuman behaviour silently, giving the justification of general belief that a girl child has no house of her own, during childhood, she is in her father's house, after marriage at in-law's house and at the old age in children's house, so, she cannot expect any dignity in life. The girl has hard try for adjust but when the torture crosses the threshold limit then she takes the toughest decision of her life, leaving a strong message for the society and administration to think about.

Society's Effort:

The society and government, in order to eradicate the menace, try to educate people. They provide consultation, and counselling and also give legal support to stop this unnatural death. The police administration is specially alert and they, on sensing a sniff or getting a call, move very fast to bring an amicable solution but even many times find it impossible to control this unfortunate situation.

The social reformers, researchers and administrators are jointly conducting many programmes, making legal rules and trying to give support the victim but the family is breaking. Now, not only the suicide but the separation and divorce also are increasing.

Reasons for hiding facts:

Today's girl is generally getting married after completion of her graduation. She knows the hardship that her parents faced for her upbringing, so, is not interested in increasing their agony much by narrating her misfortune.

• The girl also does not want to share with relatives or friends because of social taboos.
• She does not want to take the help of the police because of the age-old societal mentality.

I again saw that some fathers even after satisfying the groom's family, could not save their daughter. The greedy in-laws were continuously putting pressure on the girl to bring extra money which the girl refused. This refusal and adamant behaviour brought the all ills in her life. Father remains ignorant.

These kinds of torture has been in practice since the very early age of civilisation and still continue though many rules have been promulgated for the elimination of such atrocity yet the society, irrespective of educational and cultural background, is plagued by this inhuman behaviour.

It is further seen that not only senior members but the much juniors also resort to taunting and jibe for getting every single opportunity. All these jibes, taunts and even in some cases, physical assaults put the young housewife in such a pitiable condition that she finds no other way than to finish herself, thus we find today, that the number of family victims is on the rise for domestic violence.

What is Domestic Violence:

Domestic violence is mental and physical torture in terms of scaring, doing harm, insulting, threatening and sexual coercion by the members of a family.

Domestic violence is referred to a married person in general. It includes in its ambit everyone irrespective of caste, creed and gender, but in reality, it happens with the married lady only.

Effects of Domestic Violence:

The continuous humiliation and torture make the lady depressed. She lost her self-respect. The victims experience diminishing of self-worth and live like lifeless robots.

Legal System:

Today, some girls are desperate. They go out of the house and seek legal support by complaining against their husbands and in-laws but, in many cases, they are harassed and the society and legal body make her to feel that all that happened because of her only. She is at fault and needs to take the initiative for rapprochement. After overcoming the initial barrier of police administration when she moves to court then also Indian girl cannot bear the insinuating arguments of a lawyer, but to get justice she remains strong and seeks justice under IPC 498A (Now, it is changed by some relevant section of BNS).

Even if the girl wins at trial court then the opponent moves to a higher court and justice gets delayed for which the cultured family does not prefer to move to court but to remain silent on this social evil.

Recently, a judgement by the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court raised many questions about the definition of Domestic Violence.

The Hon'ble judge in its verdict clearly mentioned that mere taunting, jibing or putting restrictions on the girl cannot be termed as Domestic Violence in the eyes of the law, whereas, IPC 498A states, "Whoever, being the husband or relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine."

The honourable judge after going the case history, testimonials, circumstantial evidence and the order of the Trial Court, made his comment about Domestic Violence whereas the Lower Court found all the facts are in accordance to IPC 498A and termed as 'Cruelty'.

What is Cruelty?

1. Cruelty is any wilful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to the life, limb or health ( whether mental or physical) of the woman.
2. Cruelty is the harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.

The case which was heard by the court is as under:

• A girl was married on 24th December 2002.
• She moved to her in-law's house as per tradition. After that, the domestic violence started.
• The girl was not allowed to mix with any neighbour.
• She was not allowed to go temple alone.
• The girl was to sleep on the floor.
• The girl didn't allow ti watch TV.

The girl was asked to fetch water for home from outside at night 1 AM when the locality was empty. She did not get permission to go early because at that time others were there for fetching water.

In that village, people needed to bring water from outside. Everyone brings water in the day time and evening time but that lady was not allowed to bring water in those times because the in-laws did not want her to talk to anybody. So, when in the deep night, at 1 AM, the area was empty, the young girl was asked to fetch water. This, regular incident along with other violent activities made the girl frustrated.

The girl committed suicide on 1st May 2003. Her parents made a sue and the Trial Court at Jalgaon, after assessing the documents, examining the witnesses and going through the circumstantial evidence, was convinced that the suicide occurred due to harassment and linked the death with the cruelty and abetment to suicide. The Hon'ble judge convicted the husband, his parents and his brother under the provision of IPC 498A and IPC 306.

(IPC 498A: Whoever, being the husband or relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall be liable to fine.

IPC 306:

 If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.)

This ruling was challenged by the convicted family and the judgement came on 17 th October 2024, where the hon'ble judge of Aurangabad Bench, Bombay High Court quashed the verdict and acquitted all appellants, citing the reasons as under:--

1. "Cruelty", whether mental or physical, cannot be strictly defined. Each situation is context-dependent and not all domestic issues qualify as legally actionable.
2. The court clearly stated that none of the allegations mentioned in this case has any severity and do not constitute physical or mental cruelty.
3. The court further stated that any harassment should have been 'Persistent' or 'Consistent' which the Hon'ble Justice did not find in this case.
4. The court observed that the lady last interacted with her mother, uncle and aunt on March 2003, almost two months before suicide and left no indication of her plight.
5. The court said that bringing water in the deep night cannot be considered as torture because, in that region, where the house is situated, water generally comes in the night.
6. The court does not feel that a girl sleeping on a mattress or not allowed to watch TV can be considered cruel activity and thus, overturned the order of the Trial Court and acquitted all convicts.

Conclusion:

1.  Just opposite judgments of two courts made the common people to feel that the Researchers and Law Makers should make the definition for "Cruelty" in such a language that there should not be any ambiguity and should not have any scope for individual interpretation.
2. The term, 'Consistent' and 'Persistent', uttered by Hon'ble High Court, needs to be viewed seriously by Researchers because if regular sleeping on a mattress, depriving to watch TV or not being allowed to mix with neighbours do not fall in the category of 'Consistent' and 'Persistent', then the Law Makers should clarify which category of ill behaviour should be categorised as Consistent and Persistent.
3. It is known that today's mature girl does not like to put her parents in trouble by narrating misery but here found, the Hon'ble Justice gave cognisance of the dialogue that the girl had with her mother and others about two months ago without mentioning about distress she faced and inferred that the cruelty and harassment were just a mere domestic matter and cannot be the abetment to suicide.
4. The court did not try to understand why the girl ended her life so early after marriage and quashed the verdict.
5. So, it is necessary to take a serious look at the problem and make a clearly defined rule which will help to bring a smile to the harassed and tortured lady.

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