Supreme Court.
The suicide of engineer Atul Subhash made headlines. Atul’s wife filed many cases against Atul, including dowry harassment. Atul became frustrated by this and decided to end his life. Following the news of Atul’s suicide, the Supreme Court expressed concern over misuse of dowry laws. The court said courts should be careful to prevent misuse of the law in cases of dowry harassment. The court stated that given the husband’s tendency to implicate relatives, innocent family members should be protected from causing unnecessary trouble.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotishwar Singh said mentioning the names of family members should be prohibited from the outset unless there are allegations that they are actively involved in criminal cases arising out of matrimonial disputes.
The judge said that judging from judicial experience, it is well known that once a marital dispute occurs, all the husband’s family members are often implicated. General and broad accusations without specific evidence or specific accusations cannot form the basis of a criminal prosecution. Therefore, the Supreme Court said that in such cases, courts should exercise caution to prevent abuse of legal provisions and legal procedures and avoid unnecessary trouble for innocent family members.
High Court order dismissed
The court made this observation while rejecting the Telangana High Court order which refused to dismiss a dowry harassment case filed by a woman against her husband, parents and other family members.
The Supreme Court said the purpose of incorporating Section 498A into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) through amendment is to prevent abuse of women by their husbands and their families and ensure timely intervention by the state.
What else did the bench say?
The bench said that sections like IPC Section 498A (cruelty to wife by husband or his relatives) are increasingly being misused to promote the wife’s personal hatred against her husband and his family members.
The court also said that we are not saying that any woman facing abuse under Section 498A of IPC should remain silent and not file a complaint or initiate any criminal proceedings. The judge said (all it had to say) that such cases should not be promoted.
