The Delhi High Court ruled that simply demanding dowry does not qualify as cruelty under Section 498A IPC. It also stated that vague accusations without solid proof cannot be considered harassment.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court gave an important judgment, saying that just asking for dowry is not enough to be considered a crime under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. The court also said that unclear accusations of threats cannot be considered harassment under the law.
Justice Amit Mahajan made these statements while canceling an FIR that a woman had filed against her husband’s relatives. This case, which started in 2019, named the woman’s husband, his parents, and some other relatives as accused.
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The accused relatives went to the Delhi High Court and requested that the FIR be quashed. They argued that they were not close family members, did not live with the woman, and had no reason to demand dowry from her.
The court listened to their plea and agreed that there was not enough evidence against them. It noted that the allegations against them were very general and lacked strong proof.
“While an FIR is not expected to be an encyclopaedia, the complainant has detailed multiple facts in her complaint. Yet, there is no substantive material linking the petitioners to the alleged incident,”
-the court observed.
The judgment pointed out that the accused relatives were named in the case without any real proof of their involvement. The court also suggested that the allegations seemed exaggerated.
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The court further observed that although the wife said she was “intimidated” with threats of breaking the marriage if dowry was not given, these claims were not strong enough to be called cruelty under Section 498A of IPC.
“Mere demand of dowry does not amount to an offence under Section 498A IPC, and in the present case, a simple allegation of intimidation cannot be classified as harassment, especially when the petitioners justified it as an investment,”
-the court stated.
The court also made it clear that the accused relatives were not the main culprits in this matter because they never lived with the woman.
“It appears that they have been implicated due to a common tendency of litigants to drag the husband and all his relatives into matrimonial disputes,”
-it added.
This ruling by the Delhi High Court is significant because it shows that false or vague accusations in matrimonial cases cannot be accepted without strong evidence.
The decision serves as an important legal reminder that every case must be examined carefully before assuming someone’s guilt.
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