Courts must be circumspect in taking allegations made under Section 498A IPC at face value, particularly when a divorce case is ongoing, the Court said.
The Supreme Court recently quashed criminal proceedings filed against a woman’s in-laws under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with cruelty by a husband or his relatives. The complaint had been filed soon after she was served summons in her husband’s divorce case.
A bench of Justices Manmohan and Manoj Misra considered both the timing of the complaint and the nature of the allegations, noting that—
“In matters arising from matrimonial disputes, particularly where the allegations are levelled after many years of marriage and, that too, after one party initiates divorce proceeding against the other, the Court must be circumspect in taking the allegations at their face value. Rather, it must examine, where allegations of mala fides are there, whether those allegations have been levelled with an oblique purpose. More so, while considering the prayer of the relatives of the husband.”
The couple had been married since 2005. In May 2019, the husband initiated divorce proceedings, and just three days after receiving the summons, the wife lodged a police complaint. She alleged physical and mental abuse by her husband, and claimed her in-laws had taunted her and withheld her salary.
Earlier, the Gujarat High Court had dismissed the husband’s request to quash the FIR. However, the Supreme Court criticized this decision, stating that the High Court had adopted a “narrow and overly technical” approach and failed to consider the broader context and circumstances of the case.
The Court noted that the complaint lacked specific details and highlighted that the complainant had been living independently and working full-time for several years prior to filing the case. Finding the allegations against the in-laws to be vague and unproven, the Court decided to dismiss the proceedings against them.
“As against the parents-in-law, the allegations are only of extending taunts and of not parting with the money for managing household expenses…A few taunts here and there is a part of everyday life which for happiness of the family are usually ignored,” the Court said.
The Court also took into account that the complainant’s own parents and uncle had advised her to be patient for the sake of the family. Given this, it concluded that continuing the prosecution against the in-laws would amount to an abuse of the legal process.
However, the Court declined to quash the proceedings against the husband, noting that the complaint included specific allegations of cruelty that warranted a full trial.
As a result, the FIR and criminal proceedings against the in-laws were quashed, while the case against the husband will proceed according to the law.
