Legal Question in Family Law in India
sir,
we are in great pain because of the behavior of girl,s family.
the story goes like this:. We live in orissa , we are a well educated family, we are four brothers, elder brother is a DSP in CRPF, me, myself is a doctor in a big corporate hospital, my third brother is M-COM, MCA and fourth brother is BCA and MBA. The case is about my third brother. my younger brother (32 yrs) is an software engineer, is working in a reputed company in metro city since 6 yrs. earning good salary and went to united states for work twice and stayed there for almost 2 years. he recently bought a duplex house in deheradoon. he is fair and handsome , earning good salary we fixed his marriage to a girl whose family business is a small shop in massorie (uttaranchal). we did the engagement and all the expensive gift were given to the girl in the form of diamond ring , necklace, kangan and all the necessary items as per our tradition. at the time of engagement girls mother told that they are not in a position to give much. We told that its ok because we just want the girl with good manners and culture and nothing else. we didn�t demand anything as the girl was from a poor family and we are strictly against dowry. Now After 3 months of engagement, we came to know that the girl was quite demanding as we came to know from my brother, every time she was asking him for apple i-phone , laptop, some money for her family. When my brother denied, her mother call him and misbehaved my brother. My brother was quite shocked , when it happened quite a number of time, he told them when u guys are behaving like this before marriage then wat will happened after marriage. so he told her mother that ur behavior is not good and try to rectify it in two days and think again whether u are seriously thinking of our marriage or just joking. For the next two days they didnt call him. Then finally my brother called my mother and told the whole story. That was the first time we came to know the whole story. He told that this family is very greedy as they have not seen anything and when they finally got some boy from a well to do family they want to snatch every thing and i can not marry such a greedy girl.
My parents were quite shocked by this as we have made all the arrangement in deheradoon for the marriage like booking of the marriage hall , band, ghodi, and all the necessary stuff. After thing over it again and again they called girls family and told them that we cant marry our son to your doughter.
Now after 5-6 days they called my mother's sister (in deheradoon) and told her to ask us to come as soon as possible to them and settle the issues and bear the expenditure wat they have expended and also bear the expenditure of wat they have purchased for their girls marriage otherwise they will file a case against us for demanding dowry of 5 lakh.
now wat should we do. we have never demanded dowry . first of all my parents were not ready to marry that girl because she is not well educated, her family is not good, they just have a small shop i a smallest town. but because my brother wanted a beautiful girl and becouse of his insistence we arranged the marriage.
now they are showing their true color .
we are in great pain and trouble ... please advise wat shud we now.
This is a total misuse of the dowry law and how can the law help us. Although they have not filed a case yet but they are threatening us.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Try to settle the matter amicably if possible, if they file a case hire a good lawyer and defend the case.