New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI) Merely asking a married woman to assist in caring for a family member is not cruelty under criminal law, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna passed the judgment while quashing criminal cases against a husband and his family for alleged cruelty and domestic violence against his wife.
The parties married in 2005 in Haldwani, Uttarakhand according to Hindu rites and customs. While it was mutually agreed that after marriage the couple would reside at the petitioner’s house in Ranikhet, the wife soon moved back to Delhi to her mother’s house and insisted her husband relocate as well.
The husband was granted an ex parte divorce in 2012.
The wife levelled serious accusations against the husband and his family, including her in-laws, alleging that they were habitual drinkers and tortured her and taunted her for insufficient dowry.
In her complaint, the wife alleged that her husband’s brother pressured her to take responsibility for his 11-year-old son by keeping him permanently at her mother’s house in Delhi.
“Merely asking the Complainant to assist in caring for a family member cannot, by itself, constitute cruelty within the meaning of Section 498A IPC,” the court ruled in the judgment passed on March 10.
The court termed the wife’s allegations vague and omnibus, remarking, “It is so simple to make such allegations against the family members; there is no explanation about any specific incident to explain her absolutely vague allegations.” The court emphasised that the wife resided with her in-laws “only for a few days” before shifting to her mother’s house in Delhi and the husband visited her from time to time.
Quashing the criminal cases, the court said the wife’s allegations did not amount to cruelty and harassment under Section 498A IPC.
“Even if the mother-in-law stayed with the Complainant in the winter months, it leaves to one’s imagination how it amounts to cruelty or harassment… There is not an iota of even a prima facie case of cruelty or harassment of the Complainant by the Petitioners,” the court concluded.
It also held that the chronology of events “clearly indicated” that the criminal proceedings, including the case for alleged domestic violence, were initiated after the marriage was dissolved by a decree of divorce and were, therefore, an attempt to revive matrimonial disputes, which was an abuse of the process of law and an afterthought.
Bald and sweeping allegations are insufficient to sustain proceedings under the Domestic Violence Act and the accusations, at best, reflect ordinary matrimonial discord and lack of adjustment, the court said.
The court also rejected the wife’s claim that the husband and his family members forcefully retained her gold jewellery, saying the allegations lacked details. PTI ADS KSS KSS
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