‘Can’t give bike, cash, jewellery? Donate kidney’: Bihar woman faces dowry demand from in-laws
Patna: In a disturbing and bizarre case of dowry harassment, a woman from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district has accused her in-laws of demanding that she donate one of her kidneys to her ailing husband after she failed to provide the expected dowry, which included a bike, cash, and jewellery.
The woman, identified as Dipti, filed a complaint with the women’s police station in Muzaffarpur, detailing the harrowing treatment she endured after her marriage in 2021, as reported by The New Indian Express on Wednesday.
Dipti had moved into her in-laws' residence in the Bochaha police station area after her marriage. For the first two years, Dipti described a relatively peaceful marital life. However, tensions began when her in-laws started pressuring her for dowry, demanding she bring a bike and money from her parental home. When she was unable to meet these unreasonable demands, the physical and mental harassment escalated, and the family allegedly started coercing her to donate one of her kidneys to her ailing husband.
“I came to know about my husband’s kidney ailment after two years of my marriage, though he was suffering from it before marriage. Initially, I took their demand casually, but later, they started exerting pressure on me. When I refused to oblige them, I was beaten black and blue and thrown out of the house,” TNIE quoted Dipti as saying.
In an attempt to resolve the situation, police intervened and tried to mediate between the parties, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
Dipti also insisted on getting a divorce from her husband, which he rejected.
As a result, a case was registered at the district women’s police station, with four members of her husband’s family, including the husband himself, named as accused in the complaint.
Further investigation is currently ongoing in this case.
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SC to hear on May 4 PIL seeking stringent guidelines for issuing Aadhaar to adolescents, adults
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking a direction to the Unique Identification Authority of India to issue new Aadhaar cards only to citizens up to the age of six years, and frame stringent guidelines for its issuance to adolescents and adults to stop infiltrators from masquerading as Indian citizens.
As per the apex court's causelist of May 4, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has also sought a direction to the authorities to install display boards at common service centres stating that the 12-digit unique identification number is only a "proof of identity" and not a proof of citizenship, address or date of birth.
Besides all the states and Union Territories, the plea has made the UIDAI -- which is the authority that issues Aadhaar -- and the Union ministries of home, law and justice, and electronics and information technology as parties.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, said Aadhaar, originally intended as a proof of identity, has increasingly become a "foundational document" enabling individuals to obtain other identification documents, such as ration cards, domicile certificates and voter identity cards.
"The UIDAI has issued 144 crore Aadhaar and 99 percent Indians have been enrolled. Therefore, the petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL under Article 32, seeking a direction to UIDAI to issue new Aadhaar to children only and frame new stringent guidelines for adolescents and adults, so as to stop infiltrators from getting it and masquerading as Indian citizens," the plea said.
It said the need to file the plea arose when the petitioner came to know the manner in which infiltrators are able to procure Aadhaar through a verification process that is weak and can be easily manipulated.
"Foreigners apply for Aadhaar under the 'foreign' category. But infiltrators apply for Aadhaar under the 'Indian citizen' category and get it easily made. Thereafter, they obtain a ration card, birth and domicile certificate, driving licence, et cetera, essentially becoming indistinguishable from Indian citizens…," it said.
Besides seeking other directions, the plea has raised legal questions, including whether the Aadhaar Act 2016 has become "temporally unreasonable" for failing to keep up with the legislative intent of distinguishing foreigners from Indian citizens.
It said the alleged misuse of Aadhaar undermines targeted welfare delivery and leads to diversion of public resources.
