No more mechanical addition of Murder charges in Dowry Death Cases

In a significant Judgment, the Supreme Court has practically put an end to the practice of mechanically adding the charge of Murder in all Dowry Death Cases by Trial Judges following a blanket directive of the Supreme Court in Rajibir v. State of Haryana.It was on 22November 2010, the Bench headed by Justice Katju, along with Justice Gyan Sudha Misra issued a direction to the Trial Courts. The direction virtually amended Section 216 of Cr.P.C, thereby restraining the Trial Courts from applying their minds to the facts and circumstances of each case while framing a Court charge.As a result, even in cases in which records reveal that the victim has committed suicide, Trial Courts were bound to frame charge for murder! Though Rajbir did not contain the words “, it has now been explained by the Supreme Court, by adding such an expression, which it did not actually contain.But those who know the zero tolerance approach of Justice Katju’s towards dowry deaths would easily realise that Rajbir was his final attempt to award death penalty in all dowry death cases, against his own advice to curb judicial legislation.In Nathu v. State of U.P while hearing a bail application Justice Katju observed, "In my opinion dowry death is worse than murder but surprisingly there is no death penalty for it whereas death penalty can be given for murder. 13 SCC 689) while upholding the conviction of the accused U/S 304B and 498A the Bench headed by Justice Katju wrote “"In fact, it was really a case under S.302 IPC and death sentence should have been imposed in such a case, but since no charge under S.302 IPC was levelled, we cannot do so, otherwise, such cases of bride burning, in our opinion, fall in the category of rarest of rare cases, and hence deserve death sentence".