Wife can’t pursue dowry case after divorce: SC

R Sedhuraman

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Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, December 12

The Supreme Court has ruled that the wife had no right to pursue dowry harassment case after obtaining divorce through settlement.

“Once the matter was settled between the parties and the said settlement was given effect to in the form of divorce by mutual consent, no further dispute survived between the parties,” a Bench comprising Justices SJ Mukhopadhaya and AK Goel held.

The apex court gave the ruling while setting aside an Allahabad High Court order quashing a man’s acquittal by the Ghaziabad trial court in a case under Sections 498A, 406 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. The HC had passed the order on a petition by Shlok Bhardwaj’s divorced wife, Runika.

Shortly after their marriage in January 1996, Bhardwaj filed for divorce in an Allahabad family court in July 1997. Following this, his wife lodged an FIR in November 1997 alleging cruelty by Bhardwaj and four of his family members. At the end of the trial all five were acquitted in July 2002.

Rumi subsequently a filed a divorce petition in Jabalpur. Bhardwaj came to the SC seeking transfer of the petition from Jabalpur.