The Court quashed the wife’s complaint, saying that the allegations were vague.
The Supreme Court recently dismissed a domestic violence complaint filed by a woman in Jammu after her mutual divorce attempt with her husband fell through.
Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran found the allegations to be vague and generalized, labelling the complaint as an “abuse of the legal process.”
The Court was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by the husband, challenging a 2023 order by a Jammu magistrate that refused to dismiss his estranged wife’s complaint.
The couple, who married in April 2018 under Hindu rites, later encountered disputes. They jointly applied for a mutual consent divorce on October 9, 2019, but the wife withdrew the petition on January 25, 2020.
Just days later, on February 6, 2020, the wife filed a domestic violence complaint under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The husband challenged its validity, asserting that all alleged incidents took place before October 2019, while their mutual divorce petition was still pending.
In October 2023, the magistrate rejected his objection and proceeded with the case, scheduling it for evidence, leading the husband to seek intervention from the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court noted that the wife’s allegations of being thrown out and subjected to torture were vague and related to a period before the couple had mutually agreed to separate.
“The allegations which have been made such as that she has been thrown out of the house and being tortured, etc. are not only vague and generalized but they all precede the date i.e. on 09.10.2019 on which joint application for Mutual Divorce was filed,” the Court said in its order.
Taking into account the sequence of events and the nature of the complaint, the Court concluded that the legal process was being misused.
“Considering the nature of the case and the allegations made in the complaint and the sequence of events…the entire complaint seems to be nothing but an abuse of the process of law,” the order stated.
Consequently, the Court set aside the magistrate’s 2023 order and dismissed the domestic violence case against the husband. The wife, despite being served notice, did not appear before the Supreme Court.
