If someone dies due to dowry, the maximum punishment for it is the ‘death penalty', which is the relevant section of the Prevention of Women and Child Abuse Act, which is in conflict with the Constitution.
At the end of the preliminary hearing of the writ filed by an organization, on Sunday (April 2), Justice Mahmudul Haque and Justice Md. The High Court bench of Mahmud Hasan Talukdar issued this rule.
The High Court has asked to know why Section 11(a) of the Prevention of Women and Children Abuse Act, 2000 will not be declared illegal, inconsistent with the Constitution, and the High Court, the law secretary, the senior secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs has been asked to respond to the rule.
Section 11(a) of the Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Act, 2000 states that death penalty or death for attempting to cause death due to dowry shall be punishable with life imprisonment and in case of both cases shall be punished with fine in addition to the said sentence.
Lawyer Shahdeen Malik, who was accompanied by lawyer Manzoor Alam, was accompanied by Deputy Attorney General KM Masood Rumi, who was with him, who was accompanied by the lawyer Shahdeen Malik, who was in court on behalf of the equity rights and governance trust.
Later, Shahdeen Malik said that the main argument for being unconstitutional was that according to section 11(a), the punishment for the person who is in the wrong case is death. When there is a punishment for a crime, the only punishment is death.
The writ states that the 11(a) of the Prevention of Women and Children Abuse Act, 2000, is inconsistent with Articles 26, 27, 31, 32 and 35 of the Constitution. Not only that, this clause is also harmful to the basic structure of our independent judiciary. The freedom of judiciary is one of the basic pillars and structures of the Constitution. The discretion of a judge in the independent judiciary is a fundamental characteristic.
Through this section of the law, the independence, discretion and impartiality of the judiciary and judges has been taken.
Therefore, Article 94(4) of the Constitution gives the judge the guarantee that the judge is independent, but Section 11(a) of the Prevention of Women and Child Abuse Act has determined the death penalty for death due to dowry.
