Crime against Marriage-

(A) Child marriage

A girl child is twice vulnerable for being a child and a girl. Discrimination against them begins
even before their birth and continues as they grow. Their psychological, physical and
economic dependence on the family makes them vulnerable to violence and child abuse
within or outside the family.
Law for Child Marriage Since 1872, the following efforts have been made to
legalise the minimum age of marriage. The Civil Marriage Act of 1872 was passed as a result
of the efforts made by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
A provision of the Indian Penal Code rendered the consummation of marriage before the
girl attained the age of 10, punishable with life imprisonment .
The Child Marriage Restrain Act of 1929 (popularly known as Sarda Act) which fixed the
minimum age for boys at 18 and girls at 15, extended only to British India .The Act did not
prohibit marriages nor did it declare these marriages invalid or illegal.
With the codification of the Hindu Law, the Hindu Marriage Act passed in 1955 made the
minimum age of marriage for girls at 15. In 1978, a further revision was made in the
minimum legal age. With this last amendment, the law was finally brought nearer in line
with the accumulated scientific medical evidence showing that the adolescent girl is at grave
risk of her health, as also that of her children, until she has reached the age of 18 at least.
Alongside, the minimum age of marriage for boys also underwent an upward revision to 21
years.

THE PROHIBITION OF CHILD MARRIAGE ACT, 2006

In 2006 this Act came in force for the prohibition of solemnisation of child marriages and for
matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Sec 9 deals with Punishment for adult male marrying a child girl Whoever, being a male
adult above eighteen years of age, contracts a child marriage shall be punishable with
rigorous imprisonment which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to
one lakh rupees or with both.

Sec 10 Punishment for solemnising a child marriage Whoever performs, conducts, directs
or abets any child marriage shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment which may
extend to two years and shall be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh rupees unless
he proves that he had reasons to believe that the marriage was not a child marriage.

Sec 11 Punishment for promoting or permitting solemnisation of child marriages

(1) Where a child contracts a child marriage, any person having charge of the child, whether
as parent or guardian or any other person or in any other capacity, lawful or unlawful,
including any member of an organisation or association of persons who does any act to
promote the marriage or permits it to be solemnised, or negligently fails to prevent it from
being solemnised, including attending or participating in a child marriage, shall be
punishable with rigorous imprisonment which may extend to two years and shall also be
liable to fine which may extend up to one lakh rupees: Provided that no woman shall be
punishable with imprisonment.
(2) For the purposes of this section, it shall be presumed, unless and until the contrary is
proved, that where a minor child has contracted a marriage, the person having charge of
such minor child has negligently failed to prevent the marriage from being solemnised .
(B) Domestic Violence
Physical violence as well as explicit forms of aggression are used by the more powerful in
the household as methods to ensure obedience of the less powerful and therefore related
to power dynamics in a household.
Domestic violence includes not only inter-spousal violence, but also violence perpetrated by
other family members. Generally, an important part of the power relationship between
spouses and their families relates to dowry and its ramifications.
Domestic violence includes harassment, maltreatment, brutality or cruelty and even the
threat of assault - intimidation. It includes physical injury, as well as “wilfully or knowingly
placing or attempting to place a spouse in fear of injury and compelling the Spouse by force
or threat to engage in any conduct or act, sexual or otherwise, from which the spouse has a
right to abstain”. Confining or detaining the spouse against one’s will or damaging property
is also considered as acts of violence.

1. Any form of abuse causing harm or injury to the physical and / or mental health of the
woman or compromising her life and safety.
2. Any harassment for dowry or to meet any other unlawful demand.
3. Threats to cause injury or harm. Forms of abuse recognized under the law are
a) Physical abuse
b) Sexual abuse
c) Verbal and emotional abuse
d) Economic abuse
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005
This law recognizes the right of a woman to live in violence free home and provides legal
remedies if this right is violated. Legal remedies pertain to civil reliefs such as injunctions,
compensation and monetary relief. There can be no arrests made on a complaint filed under
this law.

The orders the court can direct are as follows:

1. Protection Order [Section 18]-
This can also be termed as a “stop violence” order. Through this order the court can direct
the other party to immediately stop the acts of violence.
2. Residence Order [Section 19]-
A residence order may be passed by the court in cases where the woman apprehends being
thrown out of the house (shared household) or in cases where she has been thrown out and
wants to return to her house. The aim of this order is to ensure that women have a shelter
that is safe.
3. Monetary relief [Section 20] -
This order can be sought to meet any expenses the woman may have incurred as a result of
the violence faced. Married women or women living in the nature of marriages can also
claim maintenance from the husband/ male partner. The amount claimed under this
provision is to take care of actual expenditure incurred by the woman.

4. Compensation order [Section 22] -

A compensation order can be asked for by the woman for injuries (mental and physical)
sustained. This is over and above the actual expenditure
5. Custody order [Section 21] -
A woman can also ask for temporary custody orders for her children. This is to prevent the
woman from being separated from her children,
This order is temporary in nature and does not affect rights under
existing laws on custody and guardianship.
6. Interim / Ex parte order [Section 23] -
An interim order can be given by the court at the time the proceedings are initiated under
the PWDVA and before a final order is passed. This is to ensure that women are not
detrimentally affected during the course of the legal proceedings.

(C) Dowry Harassment and Bride Burning

Dowry is a transfer of property from the bride’s family to that of the bridegroom, at the
time of marriage. According to the present practice, dowry usually subsumes material gifts
and cash paid to the bridegroom and his kin. The practice of giving gifts to the husband’s
family in cash and kind and rituals connected with pregnancy, childbirth and ceremonies for
piercing the ear of the girl and so on. The gifts are no longer a token of affection from
parents to the daughter, but instead an elaborate demand from the marital family.
The commonest elements of dowry in India include gifts for the bride such as clothes, jewels
and other house-hold and luxury goods like a refrigerator and kitchen utensils and so on.
These are ideally treated as the bride’s streedhan (wife’s property) and form the nucleus of
the conjugal estate. Dowry also includes gifts for the son-in-law and other luxury items like
scooter, VCR, VCP, and such other gifts for the bridegrooms’ parents and other relatives.
Over and above, it includes hard cash paid as contribution towards the marriage expenses.
In some cases, dowry is also paid as compensation for the expenditure incurred on the
education and other training of the groom. The bridegroom’s parents usually keep this
money. Some state that this is kept by the parents as security against the bridegroom
staying separately after marriage.

Law Against Dowry Harassment

I. The Dowry Prohibition Act 1961
This Act  prohibits the request payment or acceptance of a dowry, "as consideration for the
marriage". "Dowry" is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage.
Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal. Asking or giving
of dowry can be punished by an imprisonment of up to six months, or a fine of up to Rs.
15000 or the amount of dowry whichever is higher and imprisonment up to 5 years. It
replaced several pieces of anti-dowry legislation that had been enacted by various Indian
states. This Act was amended in 1984, 1985 and 1986.
 II. Indian Penal Code
a) Section 304(B)
This Section of the Indian Penal Code was inserted by a 1986 amendment. The Dowry
deaths law defines a 'dowry death' as the death of a woman caused by any burns or bodily
injury or which does not occur under normal circumstances within seven years of her
marriage. For a woman's death to be a dowry death, it must also be shown that soon before
her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her
husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry. If this is proved, the woman's
husband or relative is required to be deemed to have caused her death. Whoever commits
dowry death is required to be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be
less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life.
b) Section 498A
Three years prior to this, Section 498(A) was introduced in the IPC. This states that ‘any form
of cruelty, whether it is from a husband or the relative of a husband, to a woman is an
offence that is punishable with imprisonment up to three years’. Cruelty, as defined in this
section, includes ‘any wilful conduct that could cause mental torture, physical injury, or
drive the woman to commit suicide, whether in connection with any unlawful demand for
property or not’.
III. Indian Evidence Act
Sections 113(A) (presumption as to abetment of suicide of a married woman) and 113(B)
(presumption as to dowry death) were added to the Indian Evidence Act and can be invoked
in cases of dowry murder or suicide.