SC quashes dowry harassment case filed by woman who wanted to ‘wreak vengeance’ on in-laws

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, September 2

Noting that “she clearly wanted to wreak vengeance against her in-laws,” the Supreme Court has quashed a dowry harassment case filed by a woman teacher against her mother-in-law and brothers-in-law at Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

A three-judge Bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice SVN Bhatti said it was of the considered opinion that the woman’s allegations against her in-laws were “wholly insufficient and, prima facie; do not make out a case against them.”

Permitting the criminal process to go on against the appellants in such a situation would, therefore, result in clear and patent injustice.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Kumar on Thursday said the woman’s allegations “are so farfetched and improbable that no prudent person can conclude that there are sufficient grounds to proceed against them.”

The verdict came on a petition challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order refusing to quash the proceedings against the woman’s brothers-in-law and mother-in-law.

The woman got married in 2007 but her husband secured a decree of divorce on September 5, 2019. Just before her husband filed a divorce petition, the woman filed a complaint to the police, levelling allegations of harassment against her husband and in-laws. On the basis of her complaint, the police filed an FIR against them under Section 498A of IPC (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

Noting that the allegations by the woman were mostly general and omnibus in nature; and without any specific details as to how and when her brothers-in-law and mother-in-law, who lived in different cities altogether, subjected her to harassment for dowry, the top court allowed the appeal.

Most damaging to the woman’s case was the fact that she did nothing whatsoever after leaving her matrimonial home in February, 2009, and filed a complaint in the year 2013 alleging dowry harassment, just before her husband instituted divorce proceedings,” the Bench noted.