Section 304-B IPC – Ingredients of

Section 304-B IPC was incorporated in the Penal Code by the Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 1986. The object of the amendment was to curb dowry death. Section 304-B does not categorise death, it covers every kind of death that occurs otherwise than in normal circumstances. Where the other ingredients of Section 304-B of the Code are satisfied, the deeming fiction of Section 304-B would be attracted and the husband or the relatives shall be deemed to have caused the death of the bride.

         The essential ingredients for attraction of Section 304-B are:

• The death of woman must have been caused in unnatural circumstances.
• The death should have occurred within 7 years of marriage.

Soon before her death the woman must have been subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or his relatives and such cruelty or harassment must be for or in connection with the demand for dowry, and such cruelty or harassment is shown to have been meted out to the woman soon before her death. Preet Pal Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2020) 8 SCC 645.