“A criminal case filed by a wife against her husband and in-laws, in respect of cruelty and harassment over dowry claims, loses its significance if the complaint is lodged after receiving divorce notice from the husband”, the Kalaburagi bench of the Karnataka high court observed in a recent judgment, with Justice S Rachaiah quashing the FIR registered against the in-laws of the complainant.
Suma, a resident of Deodurga in Raichur district, had married Gopal Gundyal,in May 2013.
According to Suma, her husband did not take her along with him to Pune as she did not know Marathi or Hindi, thus forcing her to stay with her in-laws instead.
Suma said in her complaint that her in-laws harassed her continuously and kept insisting that she join her husband in Pune.
Frustrated with the situation, Suma finally convinced her husband to allow her to stay with him. But her husband put a condition that she would never bring any of her relatives over to their Pune residence.
However, according to Suma, on December 22, 2018, around 10.30pm, she and her parents were assaulted by her husband and in-laws.
However, dismissing Suma’s charges, her in-laws claimed that the allegations were false and said that the complaint was in retaliation to the divorce proceedings initiated by Suma’s husband before the Solapur family court.
Noting that Suma had not lodged any complaint against her in-laws until December 25, 2018, Justice Rachaiah said: “It appears that the allegations are absurd in nature and are not sufficient to invoke the provisions mentioned.”
The judge further observed: “Unless there are allegations made out against each petitioner independently, it cannot be construed that the petitioners committed the offence.” The husband of respondent No 2 (Suma) had filed a divorce petition on December 17, 2018, at Solapur family court. As a token of retaliation, respondent No 2 had filed a complaint against all the petitioners and this assumes greater significance,” Justice Rachaiah added while quashing the proceedings against Suma’s in-laws.
