The High Court of Orissa recently quashed a cruelty case that was filed under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against a woman by her brother’s wife.
Justice G Satapathy quashed the proceedings against the sister-in-law saying that the section 498A has often been misused to pressurize the husband’s family.
The Court said,” It is, however, clear that the offense of the dowry torture U/S. 498-A of IPC has often been misused against the in-laws to pressurize the family of the husband and there is a tendency of over implication of relatives of the husband who often reside in a separate mess or even at a distant place than the matrimonial home of the bride.“
In order to check the over implication of the husband’s relatives, the single judge went on to discuss the Court’s duty in such kinds of cases.
The Court further said, “It is also true that there are some genuine cases of dowry torture in which the mother-in-law and sister-in-law play a vital role, apart from the errant husband and other in-laws and the Court has to be very careful while dealing with the matter concerning matrimonial disputes between husband and wife to separate genuine case from cases of over implication and vexatious.”
The Court also showed concern over such cruelty cases that are being filed out of anger over trivial issues.
In this case, the petitioner (sister-in-law) moved to the High Court seeking quashing of criminal proceedings started against her by her brother’s wife who claimed that she was tortured both (mentally as well as physically) by her husband and other in-laws for more dowry.
The petitioner also submitted that there were only some general and unspecific allegations on her. And no offense was made out against her.
She also told the Court that she was living in a separate house after being married.
Upon this, the Court agreed that a married woman generally lives with her husband in her matrimonial home unless she has some conflicts or disputes with her in-laws.
Thus, the Court said that the criminal proceedings against the petitioner were needed to be quashed.
In the hearing, Senior advocate G Mishra appeared for the petitioner, government advocate SS Pradhan represented the state and advocate B Pujari appeared from the complainant’s side.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/section-498a-often-misused-to-pressurise-husbands-family-orissa-high-court
