In a significant judgement in Ajmal Beg (2025), the Supreme Court recently overturned the Allahabad High Court’s acquittal in a 24-year-old dowry death case. It restored the trial court’s conviction, sentencing the husband to life imprisonment.
The case involved the 2000 death of a young woman, burnt alive within a year of marriage for unmet dowry demands, for which the trial court had convicted the husband and his mother before the HC set aside the verdict, citing prosecution flaws.
The SC noted that the social evil of dowry had persisted in Indian society despite being illegal and issued directions to educate the people and authorities against the practice. It asked the high courts to review the many pending cases at the earliest.
The court also noted the growing tension between the ineffective implementation of the dowry prohibition law and its alleged misuse. The reality, however, remains that dowry is deeply rooted; parents take pride in sending off their daughters with a variety of gifts, whether or not they can afford them. The crushing debt of this enforced obligation has contributed to the misogyny girls and women face.
Families that value their daughters also fall into the dowry trap as a guarantee of their daughters’ well-being. Yet, even such families have lost their daughters to murder or suicide caused by the greed for dowry.
The SC rightly states that parties in a marriage are equals and not subservient to one another, as dowry implies. This value must, as the court states, be seeded in curricula, culture and discourse.
The court’s orders for regular training for law enforcement must be complied with, given that police officers come from society and may reflect its prevailing beliefs and biases.
To overcome their conditioning and uphold the law, they, too, require guidance, education and support. Only then will they be able to enforce the law meaningfully. Simultaneously, change must begin with those families who know better, who understand that status is not gained by ceding to evil traditions but by questioning them.
Those families must equip their children to remember their innate equality and consciously avoid perpetuating the system of dowry. The law against dowry has been in place for decades. The practice has survived not only because of lax enforcement but also because of society’s complicity. It is upon us, too, to break the cycle.