Suppression of women and their rights is something with which we all are familiar. We all are well aware of the laws which are shielding women's rights in Indian Jurisprudence, we all are aware of the various organizations working for the betterment of women. Today, in a race to achieve gender equality, we as a society are failing to provide protection and justice to men.

It has to be made clear that race of gender equality can only be won not only by shielding women but also by providing equal protection to men. However, laws made to safeguard women's rights are nowadays used by unscrupulous persons to settle a personal vendetta. The issue is not of Women vs. Men but it is 'In what kind of society we want to live in? A society that creates a feeling of oppression and injustice among the men or in a society that has gender-neutral laws and provides equal protection to men and women.

The laws stretch from protection against sexual offenses and go all the way up till providing economical protection are been made available to women which were made gender-biased because it is assumed that men are always in a dominant position over women but as observed by The Supreme Court of India in Joseph Shine vs. Union of India that:
Ancient notions of man being perpetrator and woman being victim no longer hold good.

Therefore, presently the laws are widely used as leverage to settle the scores. Sections 354, 375, 498 (A) and 509 of The Indian Penal Code, 1860, Section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Section 37 of the Special Marriage Act are a few good examples of lethal weapons used by women against men in India.

A fake allegation under Section 498 (A) of The Indian Penal Code, 1860 along with an Application under Section 12 of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and an Application under Section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 are the most preferred laws by the wife against her husband to escape the marriage easily if things go sideways.

This web of cases traps the husband and his family in litigation that takes years to settle down. During my Internships, I have worked on cases wherein fake allegations under Section 498 (A) of IPC, 1860 were made against the whole family of the husband, and then a heavy sum of money is asked by the wife to settle down the various cases filed by her and when the husband showed his incapability to pay that much amount, the wife then filed a fake complaint under section 354 of IPC, 1860 against her father-in-law and brother-in-law and used it to have bargaining power over husband and his family.

It will not be incorrect to mention that these unfair legislations have given green chit to women to have an extramarital affair, have someone else's child, and then if questioned, filing a fake 498(A) case, creating the grounds for divorce, sending husband and his relatives into jail and then to seek maintenance for rest of their life meanwhile living in disguise with some other guy.

The second most commonly used weapon of law by women against men is fake allegations under Sections 354, 375 and 509 of IPC, 1860. These laws are used with the only motive to extort money from the men and to defame them. As there is nothing that defines the modesty of a woman, the women use it to satisfy their slightest grudges with the men and the offenses being cognizable and non-bailable, brings an innocent man behind the bars without any conclusive evidence against him.

I recall from one of the cases that I have worked on, in which a couple had a mutual break up from a year-old relationship and a month after that, the girl called the boy and demanded Rs. 10,00,000 (Rupees Ten Lakhs) and threatened him of making false allegations under Sections 354 and 375 of IPC, 1860 against him, if the demands were not fulfilled.

In another instance, after a relationship, the girl falsely booked the boy for the offense of Rape and he was put behind the bars for something which was consensual. She then demanded a sum of Rs.20,00,000/- (Rupees Twenty Lakhs) to settle the matter but the boy refused to do so and contested the allegations. When the final verdict of the court came and the boy was found not guilty, the girl was only given a warning and no harsh action was taken against her. The point here is that vagueness in these laws is happily exploited by women to extort money and to take revenge.

As these are women-centric laws, there is no protection available to men against any sexual offense being committed on them by a man or woman. There are no such laws that could protect a man and his family from marital abuse. So here, a question arises that:
How fair it is to put someone behind the bars merely based on a false complaint?, irrespective of the fact that a man loses his reputation, job, career and in some cases, his life as they can't bear the mental trauma inflicted on them by such allegations.

The men's rights movement:
MRM was initiated to create awareness with respect to gender-neutral laws and to amend the existing laws. However, this faced criticism from many organizations working for the rights of women. What comes out of their critics is that these pseudo-feminist organizations have forgotten the true meaning of feminism. Taking a stand and bringing men's and women's rights to the same level is what feminism is all about. We all can recall the famous instance of Boys Locker Room which led to the death of a 17-year-old Manav Singh from Gurugram after being falsely accused of sexual harassment.

The matter of concern here is that the incapacity of a man to prove himself not guilty even when the allegations made are false is what leads him to commit suicide. It is presumed by the laws and by society that if a sexual offense is alleged against a man, he has committed it. It is for the latter that he proves himself not guilty before the court of law and gets an acquittal but he gets tried by society even after that.

It is a time where crime against women is increasing but the crime perpetrated by women is also increasing. Using the shield of biased laws as a weapon against men in order to extort money, defame a man, or satisfy the grudges needs to be stopped for which laws providing equal protection to men and women has to be inculcated so that we as a society can grow in a true positive sense and can say No! its not a man's mistake every time


Award Winning Article Is Written By: Mr.Deepak Sharma

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