SC suggests syllabi changes to raise dowry awareness

Eliminating dowry is a constitutional imperative to ensure every woman entering a marriage is an equal citizen, the Supreme Court observed on Monday, and asked the Centre and states to consider reinforcing this fact by making amends to the education curriculum to generate awareness about this “evil practice”.

- Abraham Thomas

The top court further asked high courts to collect data on the pending cases under offences related to dowry to ensure their speedy disposal.

The directions came as the court restored the conviction of a man, Aslam Beg, in a 24-year-old case for setting his wife, barely 20 years old at the time, on fire. Setting aside a 2017 Allahabad high court order that acquitted Beg and his 94-year old mother Jamila in the 2001 case, the top court ordered him to surrender in four weeks while spared the mother considering her advanced age. Earlier, a trial court in Bijnore had convicted and sentenced them to life imprisonment in October 2003.