Husband’s girlfriend can’t be prosecuted for cruelty under Section 498A of IPC, rules SC

Holding that a girlfriend or a woman with whom a man has had romantic or sexual relations outside marriage would not be a “relative of the husband” within the meaning of Section 498A of IPC, the Supreme Court has ruled that she can’t be prosecuted for cruelty and dowry demand.

A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai said that a girlfriend or even a woman with whom a man has had romantic or sexual relations outside marriage could not be construed to be a relative.

Citing the top court’s 2009 verdict in ‘U. Suvetha v. State by Inspector of Police and Another’, the Bench said, “By no stretch of imagination would a girlfriend or even a concubine in an etymological sense be a “relative”. The word “relative” brings within its purview a status. Such a status must be conferred either by blood or marriage or adoption. If no marriage had taken place, the question of one being relative of another would not arise.”

The Bench, which also included Justice KV Viswanathan, allowed a petition filed by a woman who was implicated in a case of cruelty under Section 498A of the IPC in 2019 by the wife of her former boyfriend and quashed the case against her.

“Taking the allegations at their face value in the FIR or even in the entire material placed in the charge-sheet, it will show that there is no averment or material to show that the appellant (ex-girlfriend of the man) was in any way concerned with causing harassment to (the man’s wife) on account of non-fulfilment of demand of dowry,” the top court said in its December 4 verdict.

“In that view of the matter, we are of the considered view that the continuation of the criminal proceedings against the appellant herein would be nothing else but an abuse of process of law. We find that the present appeal deserves to be allowed,” the Bench said.

The ex-girlfriend of the man had moved the top court against the judgment and order passed by a single judge of the Karnataka High Court dismissing her petition seeking quashing of the case registered at PS Gundlupete against her for offence punishable under Sections 498A and certain other provisions of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

It was alleged that prior to the marriage of the man with the complainant woman, the appellant was in a relationship with the said man and the alleged relationship continued even after his marriage.

It was further alleged that when the relationship was questioned, the woman was assaulted mentally and physically and the man’s girlfriend had also scolded the complainant in a filthy language on phone.

After the conclusion of the investigation, a charge-sheet was also filed against five accused persons on August 1, 2019. However, the top court quashed all charges against the alleged girlfriend of the man.