INTRODUCTION
On September 25th Supreme Court said that courts must act, handle and review matrimonial cruelty thoughtfully and responsibly. The Section 498A was intended to protect women from abuse in marriage life, but it has also faced criticism for being misused in several cases and that’s the reason comes Who should be protected under section 498A?
BACKGROUND OF THE CASE
The case begins when a man (the appellant) filed a petition before the Honourable Supreme Court challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court in of rejection of plea to set aside a case initiated by his sister in law who is the complainant. The complaint is filed under Section 498A BNS. The complainant levelled charges of dowry harassement and cruelty against her and her husband who is separated from her. She filed a complaint against her husband’s brother who is the appellant and her mother in law. The charges include Sections 323 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. According to her statements when she lived with her in-laws she had to face very prolonged harassment and that may lead to serious health issues like brain hemorrhage and that leads her to be paralysed of her right limbs. Against this case the husband and his family approached Allahabad high court to quash the above complaint, but the bench refused to quash the same. Hence they approached the Supreme Court in challenging the order of the High Court.
COURT’S OPINION
The Bench of B V Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan of the Supreme Court heard the matter. They are of the opinion that every court must examine the cases like matrimonial harassment with keen observations and with responsibility. According to the Court’s point that vague allegations against especially the extended family like brother in law do not automatically lead to criminal proceedings. The court also stated that the complaints must be credible and it should be trustworthy,precise and it must be supported by evidence instead of vague harassment claims. Section 498A is basically introduced for the protection of women from the cruelty and harassements from their in-laws, there is a chance of misuse of these laws and potentially leads to harassment of innocent family members.
CONCLUSION
Finally after considering all the matters and statements the Court set aside the Allahabad High Court’s order and quashed the case filed by the complainant in domestic harassment against her in- laws. The Court observed that the accusations against the extended family like the brother in law were vague and unclear.The Judiciary aims to protect real and genuine victims and prevent exploitations of laws and also highlights the court should be more conscious while handling the sensitive marital cases.
AUTHOR DETAILS:
Aswathy S Menon, a law graduate from Mar Gregorios College of Law, Thiruvananthapuram, and Practicing as a lawyer at High Court of Kerala with over two years of experience in litigation, compliance, and legal research. She has contributed to legal content writing and worked on civil, criminal, and corporate matters, with particular interests in corporate governance, contract law, and dispute resolution.