Cuttack, Odisha:
The Orissa High Court recently quashed a cruelty case under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, noting that this law is frequently misused to harass the husband’s relatives and create undue pressure on his family.
Justice G Satapathy passed the ruling in a case where a woman had filed a complaint against her sister-in-law, accusing her of mental and physical torture for dowry. The petitioner (sister-in-law) approached the High Court, claiming the allegations were false and that she lived separately from her brother and his wife, in a different household with her husband.
The High Court noted that Section 498A is often wrongly used to implicate the husband’s family, including those who live far away from the couple’s home or have little to do with their marital life.
“It is clear that dowry harassment cases under Section 498A IPC are often misused to pressurize the husband’s family. Many times, relatives who live separately or at a distant place are also included unnecessarily,” Justice Satapathy observed.
However, the judge also mentioned that there are genuine cases of dowry torture, and in such matters, courts must carefully separate real victims from those making false or exaggerated claims.
The court expressed concern that many cruelty cases are filed in the heat of the moment, sometimes over minor issues, which leads to unnecessary legal trouble for the husband’s extended family.
In this particular case (Biswaroopa Pati @ Mohanty v State of Odisha), the High Court concluded that there were no direct allegations against the sister-in-law, and since she lived separately, she could not be held responsible. The court, therefore, quashed the criminal proceedings against her.
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