The Karnataka High Court has recently ruled that a dowry harassment complaint loses its validity if filed after receiving a divorce notice. The Kalaburagi bench, led by Justice S Rachaiah, quashed the FIR against the complainant’s in-laws.
Suma, from Deodurga in Raichur district, married Gopal Gundyal in May 2013. She claimed that her husband did not take her to Pune because she did not speak Marathi or Hindi, forcing her to live with her in-laws instead. According to Suma, her in-laws continuously harassed her and pressured her to move to Pune.
Suma eventually convinced her husband to let her live with him, but he imposed a condition that she could not bring any relatives to their Pune home. On December 22, 2018, Suma alleged that she and her parents were assaulted by her husband and in-laws.
Her in-laws denied the allegations, claiming they were false and made in retaliation for the divorce proceedings initiated by Suma’s husband on December 17, 2018, at the Solapur family court.
Justice Rachaiah noted that Suma did not file her complaint until December 25, 2018. The court found that the allegations were unsubstantiated and not enough to support the charges. The judge stated that for such complaints to be valid, they must be filed independently and not merely as a response to ongoing divorce proceedings.
Consequently, the court dismissed the FIR and quashed the proceedings against Suma’s in-laws.
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