HC flags misuse of woman harassment law in absence of matrimonial grievance forums
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stated that the absence of family or social forums for addressing matrimonial grievances was leaving the wives with no option but to resort to criminal proceedings under Section 498-A of the IPC.
Justice Sumeet Goel said there are more than a few cases that seemed to be misusing the provisions related to matrimonial harassment to address marital disputes. The judge added that it could not be ignored that allegations of dowry harassment also turned out to be true in several cases.
He said, “In many cases, the wife tends to initiate criminal proceedings under Section 498-A of the IPC against her husband, as means of a solution-seeking mechanism. In other words, in a large number of cases, the criminal prosecution under Section 498-A of the IPC at the instance of a disgruntled wife is launched for settlement of the matrimonial discord in one way or the other.”
The Bench, during the course of hearing, was told that a decree of divorce was passed between the petitioner-husband and aggrieved-wife by a circuit court in Virginia, USA, in June 2015. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that nothing survived between the parties as per the final decree of divorce passed by the US court. However, the aggrieved-wife’s complainant mother still wanted to pursue criminal proceedings against the petitioner-husband.
Before parting with the judgment, Justice Goel quashed the criminal complaint pending before a Jalandhar court against the husband and other petitioners. The aggrieved-wife’s mother was also saddled with Rs 25,000 costs.
