New Delhi: Demands made by the husband to his wife to bring money from her father even three years after marriage will come within the ambit of dowry under the Dowry Prohibition Act, the Supreme Court has held.

Giving this ruling, a three-judge bench comprising Justices T.S. Thakur, Rohinton Nariman and Prafulla C. Pant said that any money or property or valuable security demanded by any of the persons mentioned in Section 19 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, at or before or at any time after the marriage which could be reasonably connected to the death of a married woman, would necessarily come under dowry.”

Different two-judge benches of the top court had earlier said that a demand for money made long time after marriage could not be termed as dowry. The present three-judge bench said Sati and dowry deaths had plagued this nation for centuries. While Sati had been abolished, dowry had been made a punishable offence.

In this case, appellant Rajinder Singh was married to Salwinder Kaur in 1990. In August 1993, his wife committed suicide, as she was unable to bring money from her father as demanded by her husband. Singh was awarded seven years imprisonment by the trial court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld this. The present appeal by Singh was against this judgment mainly on the ground that there was no proximity between the demand for dowry and the death of his wife. The Apex Court dismissed the appeal.