delhi high court
Photo: ANI
Expansion
There is a growing trend among women to implicate all relatives of the husband, including minors, as accused in matrimonial cases for the offense of cruelty to wife under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court made this remark while providing relief to a sub-inspector in a dowry harassment case. Her appointment was kept pending on the basis of the case filed by the sister-in-law. The court ordered the concerned authorities to appoint the petitioner. A division bench of Justices V Kameswara Rao and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta noted that many such complaints are eventually settled out-of-court by the parties.
The court granted relief to a man whose appointment as a sub-inspector in Delhi Police was kept in abeyance as he was named in a First Information Report (FIR) filed for an offense under section 498A. .
The bench observed that there is an increasing tendency among women to include all relatives, including minors, in FIRs lodged in the context of matrimonial disputes. Many such complaints are eventually settled either between the families, husband and wife, and later the case is said to have been filed in the summer. The misuse of the aforesaid provision has been observed to a great extent, however, the salutary purpose of the enactment cannot be ignored in any way, the court said.