New Delhi: As many as 35,493 dowry deaths were reported in India between 2017 and 2022—an average of 20 a day—but in courts, barely one in six cases ends in conviction, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
NCRB’s ‘Crime in India’ 2022 report pegs the conviction rate in cases of dowry-related violence at 11-17 percent, and a perusal of court orders shows this is mainly because of evidentiary hurdles, police apathy, hostile witnesses and delayed trials.
Section 80 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 defines dowry death as death of a woman “caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is 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”.
Punishment for the offence is stringent—imprisonment for at least seven years, which may extend to life.
Dowry death cases are often prosecuted alongside cases of cruelty inflicted on a married woman by the husband and his relatives, since both are usually related to dowry demands. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, separately penalises both giving and taking of dowry.
In 2022 alone, 6,450 dowry deaths were recorded across India with most cases reported from the northern states. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand together accounted for over half the number of cases. However, conviction numbers remained abysmally low.
Uttar Pradesh reported 2,200 dowry death cases in 2022, but convictions were secured in only 320 cases, a rate of 14.5 percent. Bihar reported 1,000 cases, with only 110 convictions (11 percent). Jharkhand had 380 cases and 55 convictions (14.4 percent).
Madhya Pradesh recorded 600 cases, but only 95 ended in conviction (15.8 percent) while Rajasthan reported 550 cases with 80 convictions (14.5 percent). Andhra Pradesh saw 450 cases with 70 convictions (15.5 percent) and West Bengal 400 cases with 65 convictions (16%). Odisha registered 350 cases and secured 60 convictions (17 percent).
Even Delhi, with 180 reported cases, saw only 20 convictions (11 percent), while Haryana had 170 cases and 25 convictions (14.7 percent). Across states, conviction rates consistently hovered between 11 percent and 17 percent, revealing systemic failures nationwide.
National Commission for Women’s (NCW) data for 2024 also highlights the scale of the crisis. Of the total complaints received by the commission, 4,383 related to dowry harassment (about 17 percent) while 292 were linked to dowry deaths.
Activist, former professor and economist Dr Vibhuti Patel says low conviction rates are rooted in institutional indifference.
Speaking to ThePrint, she recalled accompanying survivors to police stations only to be turned away. “Officers would say they had more important things to attend to, like raids or a fire in the basti,” she said.
Even when FIRs are registered, Patel added, they are frequently riddled with gaps. Survivors are often dissuaded by police from pursuing cases, citing the sanctity of marriage or the husband’s role as sole breadwinner.
Such “soft dissuasion” not only weakens complaints which later results in acquittals, but also signals to families that dowry harassment is a private matter rather than a serious crime, she said.
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The judicial struggle
The reasons behind low convictions in cases of dowry deaths are complex but interlinked.
A deep dive in judgements acquitting the accused show a pattern—police indifference and poor documentation at the FIR stage weaken cases from the start, then investigators often fail to collect adequate circumstantial evidence.
Further, most dowry death cases hinge on testimonies of the victim’s parents, siblings, or neighbours. But as trials drag on for years, “witnesses often retract their statements or stop appearing in court”, Patel said. Many face pressure or threats from the husband’s family. Others simply tire of repeated adjournments.
Courts, wary of misuse, demand higher standards of proof. Judicial delays stretch trials for years, draining the resolve of victims’ families. Without consistent testimony, prosecutions collapse.
Several court judgements show how the judiciary struggles with dowry death prosecution.
In the last week of August, the SC, while setting aside a trial court and 2014 Uttarakhand High Court order, acquitted a mother-in-law for subjecting her daughter-in-law to cruelty. The complaint was filed by the daughter-in-law’s father after the pregnant woman died in June 2001 allegedly by hanging herself at her matrimonial home when her husband was not at home.
The SC noted that the mother-in-law’s neighbour, who was examined as a witness in the case, claimed she never made any dowry demands, and the fact that the original complaint filed by the daughter-in-law’s father “never” had a dowry harassment complaint.
Plus, the court observed, citing a 2009 precedent, that “cruelty under Section 498-A IPC (that criminalises cruelty by a husband or his relatives against a married woman) must be continuous or persistent, or at least in close proximity to the lodging of the complaint. Petty quarrels cannot be termed as cruelty”.
Last year too, in D.L. Narayana vs State of Telangana, an SC bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Kotiswar Singh had quashed criminal proceedings under Section 498A and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, observing that “a mere reference to the names of family members in a criminal case arising out of a matrimonial dispute, without specific allegations indicating their active involvement should be nipped in the bud”, marking it as a misuse of the section.
Dying declarations & lack of evidence
Dowry harassment is a slow, escalating pattern that leaves little direct proof. Victims’ dying declarations often become crucial. Legally admissible under Section 32(1) of the Evidence Act, these statements can alone secure conviction if deemed reliable. But doubts about the victim’s mental fitness, coercion, or improper recording often weaken them in court.
Courts have treated such evidence inconsistently. In Karan Singh vs State of Haryana (2025), the Supreme Court acquitted a husband despite a dying declaration from his wife alleging dowry harassment. It underlined that the offence of cruelty and dowry demands must be proven to have occurred “soon before” the death of the victim. The court stressed that while dying declarations carry weight, they cannot override “substantive gaps” in the prosecution’s case.
In Makhan Singh vs State of Haryana (2022), two contradictory declarations had led to acquittal. The deceased woman had given two dying declarations, one “exonerating” the husband and his family members of dowry harassment, and the other “implicating” them. Both were recorded in her full consciousness, according to the medical records, but were “inconsistent and contradictory”.
However, in an Uttarakhand case this year, a fast-track court sentenced a husband and his parents to life imprisonment based solely on the wife’s consistent declaration of dowry harassment before death, even though six witnesses had turned hostile in the case.
According to the principles of natural justice, it is a settled tenet that a person who is at the brink of death is unlikely to lie. The Supreme Court observed in 2013 that “trial courts or high courts may not look for corroboration of a dying declaration… unless this statement suffers from any infirmity”.
“No doubt, that a conviction can be solely recorded on the basis of dying declaration. However, for doing so, the court must come to a conclusion that the dying declaration is trustworthy, reliable and one which inspires confidence,” the SC had further noted in 2023.
Patel highlighted how economic and psychological cruelty, though devastating, leave little forensic trail. She recalled a case from Mumbai in which a woman suffering from tuberculosis was fed only leftovers by her in-laws. In another, a woman eventually won her case of dowry harassment against the in-laws, but by then had lost all her sarees that she said had been cut into pieces by them, and her gold jewellery was melted into unrecognisable forms.
Growing mediation and settlement
The cases of dowry harassment clubbed with Section 498A dealing with cruelty have now started reaching mediation centres significantly more often than before.
Mediator-cum-counsellor advocate Shalini Sisodia, practising in the Delhi High Court mediation cell, told ThePrint that there had been a change in trend and now more women and families were turning to mediation in cases of dowry harassment: choosing to walk off the table with money instead of looking for vengeance or justice in court.
The shift to mediation has led to withdrawal of cases from courts, thereby lowering the case count, she said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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