Dowry Law revised: Five years imprisonment for false charges

The cabinet has given final approval to the revised dowry law suggesting five years of imprisonment for making efforts to implicate one with false charges at its weekly meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. 

"The new Dowry Prohibition Act, 2018 will replace the existing one framed in 1980," Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a news briefing at Bangladesh Secretariat after the meeting was held at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). 

He said the revised Act sought to prevent filing of false cases under the law, also suggesting a penalty of Taka 50,000 adding "a person may face up to five-years of imprisonment or the said amount of penalty or both for filing any false case under the law". 

Alam said the cabinet simultaneously proposed slapping of an amount of Taka 50,000 for demanding or giving dowry keeping intact the existing provision of one to five years of imprisonment on the same charge. 

He said one could face both the jail term and the penalty simultaneously or either of the two. 

Alam said the cabinet today also approved the draft of an agreement on coastal shipping to be signed by the members BIMSTEC countries to make easy communication on sea routes. 

The cabinet, meanwhile, was informed about Bangladesh's win in the executive committees of three important bodies of the UN Economic and Social Commission-ECOSOC for 2019-2021 sessions while the bodies are- Commission of the Status of Women-CSW, Governing Council of the UNICEF and UN Women. 

At the onset of the today's meeting the cabinet congratulated the premier for receiving the prestigious Global Women Leadership Award- 2018.

The Cabinet also adopted a condolence motion at the death of Ekushey Padak recipient poet, journalist and translator Belal Chowdhury.