Bombay HC quashes FIR against 5 persons, says strangers can’t be accused of cruelty to wife

The bench of Justices V K Jadhav and M G Sewlikar said that one has to be a relative of the husband by blood, marriage, or adoption in order to be under the scope of IPC section 498-A as an accused.

Stating that a stranger to a family does not come under the scope of a penal offence of 'cruelty to wife', the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court quashed a case under IPC section 498-A registered against a 'mediator' and four members of a family. However, the bench refused to grant relief to the husband and his married sister.

According to a report in Times of India, the HC gave the verdict in a case where a woman had filed an FIR against her husband and his relatives, alleging cruelty under Section 498- A. In her complaint registered in Hingoli in 2019, the wife had also named the mediator.

While quashing the FIR, the bench of Justices V K Jadhav and M G Sewlikar said that one has to be a relative of the husband by blood, marriage, or adoption in order to be under the scope of IPC section 498-A as an accused.

The HC bench was hearing a plea filed by seven people who urged the court to quash the FIR filed against them as they were "unnecessarily roped in as accused".

The bench noted that there is a growing tendency "to implicate all the near and dear relatives of the husband". Stating that the Supreme Court had also deprecated this tendency, the HC order said, "This case is also not an exception".

The bench further observed that vague and general allegations were made against the seven accused on the basis of which no offence can be made out. Noting that no case could be made on merit against the five accused, the HC said the "continuation of prosecution would be nothing but an abuse of process of law."

The prosecution told the court that specific allegations are made against the husband and his married sister. When the HC expressed its inclination to grant them no relief, the two of them withdrew their petition.

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