New Delhi: The Delhi high court has said that a settlement between a complainant and an accused is not enough to quash a case of dowry death.Bar and Bench has reported that a single bench of Justice Mukta Gupta refused to set aside a first information report registered against a man in the aftermath of the death by suicide of his wife, allegedly due to harassment she faced over dowry.The report says that the deceased and one Dalbir Singh were married on March 2021. Although Singh’s family made no demand for a dowry then, they soon started demanding a motorcycle. By August, the deceased had informed her parents of the situation and said that she would attempt to resolve the dispute. On August 30, the family of deceased were told that she had died by suicide.While investigation was going on, the two families allegedly stated that they held no grudges against each other and filed a plea to quash the case.Justice Gupta noted that the woman died by suicide within five months of her wedding due to harassment by her husband and his family and that the offence reflected a social evil and could not be quashed.“…[T]he offence punishable under Section 304-B IPC is not only a grave and heinous offence but an offence against the society actuated by the social evil of demand of dowry, thus needs deterrence and, therefore, cannot be quashed on the basis of settlement arrived at between the accused and the complainant,” the judge added.Section 304-B of the Indian Penal Code contains what counts as a “dowry death” and delineates punishment for it.Justice Gupta’s observation is similar to what a single-judge bench of Justice M.R. Anitha of the Kerala high court noted while rejecting a dowry death-accused husband’s bail petition. The judge said that the petitioner has been charged with the “grave crime of dowry death, which is a social evil” and that the personal liberty of the accused had to be balanced with the public interest.Justice Gupta also cited the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Parbatbhai Aahir ..vs The State Of Gujarat case, to note that when grave offences were involved, a compromise cannot guarantee the quashing of an FIR.As recently as May 2021, the Supreme Court gave renewed attention to dowry deaths and took up an effort to plug legal loopholes related to it.In two key judgments dealing with dowry deaths, a bench led by CJI N.V. Ramana sought to tighten the law without compromising natural justice to the accused husband and his family members.