If law is misused, it should be abolished, is a peculiar thought reserved only for middle class indian males, their mothers and sisters. through out the world laws of the land are misused. hence, when a legislation is drafted, expert committee sits to give final touch to the law so that its provisions are not misused. even then, they cannot forsee all the future complications, once law comes into effect. that is why, there will be a provision in law (Act) empowering the government to make rules, to avoid the misuse of law. as such provisions are there, the govt. without approaching the legislative body, can straight away make amendments and bring them into force and place such amendments later on as and when legislative body sits for doing its business, for its approval. such provision is called enabiling provision. ipc has got such enabiling provision.
amendment of section 498-A is under consideration for some time. there are certain observations from supreme court and there are law commission reports on the subject and there are studies from national commision for women on the same subject. they are not unanimous, but conflicting observations have come from these bodies. similarly the women's organisations and some other affected groups are also sending their suggestions about section 498-A and they are in active consideration.
but the most important question comes forth is -
if a law is misused or it does not fulfill the objects for which it is enacted, shall it be abolished totally or shall it be amended so that the mischief can be plugged and the Act shall serve its purpose and achieve the objects, for which it is made?
by mere misuse, if the Act is to be abolished, then there will be no Acts in india.
Take Section 138 N.I. Act. it is totally misused. the judges are running away from the courts by seeing the sheer volume of s. 138 NI Act cases. The SC is intervening intermittently by describing what is "dishonour of cheque", but the cases are multiplying every day. total misuse of this provision,crippling our entire lower judicial system.
take NDPS Act, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. total misuse. always, only poor people are apprehended and put behind bars. no easy bail provision. if you call any law draconian law, it is the draconian law like TADA and POTA. the big sharks, who are in this business of narcotics are funding the political parties in power and enjoying the money and muscle power by pumping the narcotic drugs in the society. this Act is totally misused.
take IT Act. A large bunch of chartered accountants sit only for the purpose of finding mischevious ways to evade tax and advise their corporate clients. then corporates on the basis of such advise, misuse the law. shall it be abolished?
recently one sc judge observed, if there is any misuse of legal provision in ipc, it is Section 307. He asked, shall it be removed? He himself answered "no". he says, there is a purpose behind this provision to protect the victims and hence, it should be allowed to keep its place in the statute book. he further said that the duty of the courts is to stop misuse and at the same time to protect the people, who properly use it. for that purpose only courts are constituted.
so, if section 498-A is misused, it is the duty of the courts to stop misuse. it is illogic and criminal demand to ask that it should be abolished totally. The meaning of such demand is give the right to men and their families to physically and mentally harass the wife. that is not acceptable in any civilised society.