bombay high court
The Bombay High Court held that not allowing a child to see his mother amounted to “cruelty” under the Indian Penal Code. Furthermore, the court also refused to quash the FIR registered against the in-laws of a woman living in Jalna. In Aurangabad, a bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rohit Joshi, in a verdict delivered on December 11, said the woman’s four-year-old daughter was being kept away from her despite the lower court’s order.
“Keeping a four-year-old girl away from her mother also amounts to mental torture, which amounts to cruelty and will certainly cause serious harm to the mother’s mental health,” the court said. The high court said such behavior by the in-laws amounted to Section 498- of the Indian Penal Code. “Cruelty” as defined in Article A.
The woman was kicked out of her home in 2022
“Even today, the mental harassment continues day in and day out,” the judge said. “This is wrong conduct.” It is stated that this FIR will not be quashed as it is not suitable for court intervention. The woman’s father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law had sought quashing of an FIR lodged against them in Maharashtra’s Jalna district for alleged cruelty, harassment and criminal intimidation.
According to the complainant, she got married in 2019 and gave birth to a daughter in 2020. The husband and his family began demanding money from her parents and physically harassed and tortured her. In May 2022, the woman was allegedly kicked out of her home by her in-laws. He was not allowed to take his daughter with him. Thereafter, he filed an application for “custody” of his daughter with the district court.
Failure to comply with a magistrate’s court order
The woman told the High Court that the district court had ordered her husband to transfer custody of the children to the mother in 2023, but the order was not implemented and the children remained with her husband. The judge said that although the child was with the husband, the applicant (in-laws) helped him by withholding information about his whereabouts. The court said those who failed to respect judicial orders were not entitled to any relief.
Also Read – No new case will be registered, lower courts cannot issue orders, Supreme Court speaks out on Places of Worship Act
