Woman fined Rs 1 lakh for false domestic violence case

New Delhi, June 19

A court has dismissed a woman's domestic violence complaint against her husband and in laws as frivolous and malicious and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

 Metropolitan Magistrate Shivani Chauhan said the woman, a south Delhi resident, had concocted the allegations to harass her husband and extort money from them.

It noted that: "The testimony of the complainant (woman) throws light on the conduct of the complainant and the extent, to which she has falsified and concocted various allegations and has suppressed important facts in order to harass the respondents (husband and parents-in-laws) and had misused the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act as a tool to extort unjustified money from respondent no 1 (husband) for unjustified personal gain. It is a fit case which calls for imposition of exemplary cost on complainant, so that like minded people are dissuaded from resorting to such mala fide practices."

The court directed the woman to deposit the fine in the account of Blind Relief Association.

"The imposition of cost is in furtherance of the principle that wrongdoers should not get benefit out of frivolous litigations," it said.

In her complaint, the woman claimed she married her husband, a man of her own choice, in November 1989 at Patna. Differences, however, soon began to crop up and her husband began to abuse her — both physically and verbally — while her in-laws chose to ignore the violence, the complaint had claimed. — PTI