NEW DELHI, Aug 25: Ten years after an amendment to the Dowry Prohibition Act empowering the State Government to appoint Dowry Prohibition Officers, it is still the police which is doing the job through crime against women cells.Acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in this regard, the Delhi High Court asked the city Police Commissioner on Friday to reply to the petition by October 22.The PIL, filed by Dr Janak Raj Jai, said section 8-B of Dowry Prohibition Act, which was introduced in 1986, empowered the State Government to ``appoint as many Dowry Prohibition Officers as it thinks fit and specify the areas in which they shall exercise their jurisdiction and powers''.The act also provided for appointment of an advisory board consisting of a maximum of five social workers, out of which at least two shall be women, to give specialist opinion to Dowry Prohibition Officers.Dr Jai had contended that in spite of such wide ranging provisions, the State Government has not done anything and the police through ill-equipped crime against women cells were still managing an important social function.Quoting the National Police Commission's third report on the manner of arrests made by the police, the petitioner Dr Janak Raj Jai said nearly 60 per cent of the arrests were either unnecessary, unjustified and that such unjustified action of the police accounted for over 43 per cent of the expenditure of jails.
