Engagements offerings are not dowry !!

I am sorry I don't agree with the verdict of Hon'ble Bombay High Court. When bride's family  presented in the form of money to bride groom's family in Engagements isn't it dowary?

Any property given by parents of the bride need to be in consideration of the marriage, it can even be in connection with the marriage and would constitute dowry; Rajeev v. Ram Kishan Jaiswal, 1994 Cri L.J. NOC 255 (All).

I disagree with Sathya Prakash & VIshal. If you read carefully, it clearly states that this are the customary gifts, which does not constitute dowry. This is the settled law. There is no mention of the cash or property given to the bride in connection of the marriage.

Moreover, the money or the property or any such high value items like car given out of love from the brides family to the bride at the time of the marriage does not constitute to the dowry if there is no demand of any sort. Otherwise the jewellaries given to the groom and their parents / siblings would definately constitute to the dowry, and all the males and their families would be behind bars for taking the dowry when not asked for or is given out of love from the girls family.

Here if we carefully  look into the case, there was a demand for 4 Lakh rupees,  for non payment of 4 lakh rupees the marriage was cancelled, The greed for dowry is clearly visible on the very face, Therefore I agree with P.Satya Prakash and A.V.VISHAL, they have submitted rightly.

Sunderraj,

My comments were wrt the comments made by P Satya Prakash and A Vishal. I agree that there was the demand, but that was their statement. I know 4 cases similar where the engagement of the girl has been broken due to non-compatibility and unreasonable demands of the girls, and later have filed cases for asking dowry when the engagement was broken from boys side. They are fighting the cases. So this does not tell the other side of the story.