Dowry Death: Ingredients Shall Be Proved By Prosecution Beyond Reasonable Doubt To Invoke Presumption: SC [Read Judgment]

The bench did not consider two per-incuriam judgments authored by Justice Vikramjit Sen, which held that prosecution can discharge the initial burden to prove the ingredients of S.304B even by preponderance of probabilities and the accused has to prove his defence beyond reasonable doubt.A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has reiterated that one of the essential ingredients of dowry. The bench did not consider two per-incuriam judgments authored by Justice Vikramjit Sen, which held that prosecution can discharge the initial burden to prove the ingredients of S.304B even by preponderance of probabilities and the accused has to prove his defence beyond reasonable doubt. A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has reiterated that one of the essential ingredients of dowry death under Section 304B of the Penal Code is that the accused must have subjected the woman to cruelty in connection with demand for dowry soon before her death and that this ingredient has to be proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt and only then the court will presume that the accused has committed the offence of dowry death under Section 113B of the Indian Evidence Act. A bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Amitava Roy acquitted accused in-laws in a dowry death case, holding that the prosecution failed to prove this indispensable component of Sections 304B and 498A of the Penal Code beyond reasonable doubt.