In a landmark observation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday highlighted a concerning trend where dowry victims increasingly indict their husband’s relatives. The court quashed a dowry harassment case against the parents-in-law of a woman, noting the allegations were general and lacked specifics regarding physical torture.
The bench, comprising Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Prashant Kumar Mishra, pointed out that the complaints primarily included taunts and statements about the political connections of the husband’s family which supposedly influenced their actions. “The allegation is only of taunt and statement that they are highly placed having political influence and connection with ministers as such they instigated accused 1 (husband) to accused 3 (husband’s parents) to pressurise the de-facto complainant to get additional dowry,” the judgment stated.
The justices criticized the frequent involvement of the husband’s relatives in legal battles under Section 498A of the IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, deeming it an undesirable practice. “Considering the growing trend of the dowry victim arraigning the relatives of the husband, this court has deprecated the practice involving the relatives of the husband for the offence,” they remarked.
The case stemmed from a marriage in 2014 in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Five months post-marriage, the woman returned to live with her parents, oscillating between her marital and parental homes until finally settling in the US without informing her husband’s family. This led to multiple legal actions, including a restitution of conjugal rights and a petition for dissolution of marriage by the husband in 2016, to which the wife responded with multiple police complaints involving several family members.
