JOIN US The Supreme Court has dismissed a curative petition filed by National Commission for Women against a 2014 judgement that had directed the police not to arrest the accused in casual and mechanical manner in dowry harassment cases.
The four-judge bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur, Justices Anil R Dave, J S Khehar and P C Ghose saw no ground to interfere with the apex court’s ruling made on July 2, 2014, in Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar.
Alarmed over the abuse of dowry prohibition laws, the Supreme Court's bench of Justices C K Prasad (since retired) and P C Ghose had ordered the police not to arrest the accused in such cases and seek authorisation from a magistrate before detention.
The court had then said that this rule would also apply in all cases relating to the offences where the punishment was upto seven years imprisonment. In its plea before the court, the NCW contended that the court's judgement would go against the interest of women victims as it provided an unreasonable discretion to the police in deciding whether or not to arrest the accused in a dowry harassment case.