Section 498A: Centre may review the domestic violence law

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : In what may result in the first review of the new Indian criminal codes, the Centre has started discussions on the misuse of Sections 85 and 86 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) that criminalize domestic violence against women by their husbands and in-laws, said Union law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal in an interview. The development comes after the Supreme Court expressed concerns over the replication of Section 498A of the now-repealed Indian Penal Code in the BNS without adequate safeguards for husbands and their relatives against frivolous complaints.

In the nearly three months since the BNS came into force, the ministry has received feedback from the apex court about the provision, said Meghwal, who is the minister of state with independent charge of the ministry of law and justice. “We have received one judicial pronouncement to date about Section 498A that it was kept unchanged in the new law, and we take up issues raised in all judicial pronouncements that come to us. The issue of Section 498A is related to crimes of cruelty against women.

We are currently discussing it," he said. On 1 July, the Union government enforced the BNS, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), which replaced the IPC, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively. However, it was notified that cases filed before 1 July will continue to be adjudicated according to the IPC.

Section 498A, which was added to the IPC in 1983 to curb the surge in dowry-related crimes against women, was used as it is in the new law. It had a penal provision and an added explanation to define "cruelty". In the BNS, these two