Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 16: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed an FIR registered at Women Police Station, Udhampur, along with the chargesheet and the trial court’s order framing charges, holding that vague and omnibus allegations of dowry demand, cruelty and intimidation cannot be used to drag the husband’s entire family into criminal prosecution.
Justice Shahzad Azeem passed the judgment in petition titled Mela Ram and others Versus State of J&K and Another and Arti Devi Versus State of J&K and another. The petitioners had sought quashment of the complaint dated November 15, 2017, FIR No. 49/2017, chargesheet dated February 2, 2018 and the order dated August 14, 2018 by which charges under Sections 498-A and 506 RPC had been framed against them.
As per the case record, complainant Shakti Devi, a follower in Jammu and Kashmir Police posted in 15th IRP Battalion, had accused her husband Bikram Singh, an Army personnel, along with his parents, brother, sister-in-law and another woman, of subjecting her to cruelty, mental and physical harassment and dowry demands. She had also alleged that her husband was having illicit relations with Arti Devi and intended to marry her.
After examining the complaint and the material collected during investigation, the High Court found that the allegations were wholesale, vague and lacking material particulars such as date, time, place and manner of the alleged incidents. The Court observed that it is now well settled that the husband’s entire family cannot be prosecuted merely on sweeping and generalized allegations, and said such a tendency deserves to be discouraged.
The court further held that Arti Devi could not be prosecuted under Section 498-A RPC, as she was neither a relative of the husband by blood, marriage or adoption, nor was there any allegation that she had harassed or intimidated the complainant. Relying on Supreme Court precedents, the High Court made it clear that a girlfriend or outsider does not fall within the ambit of “relative” for the purpose of Section 498-A.
The High Court also took note of the fact that prior to registration of the impugned FIR, the husband had already instituted proceedings seeking annulment of marriage under Section 12(1)(c) of the Hindu Marriage Act and had also filed a complaint under Sections 420 and 506 RPC against the wife. In these circumstances, the court held that the criminal proceedings initiated later by the complainant appeared to be a “counter blast” and were manifestly attended with mala fide.
Holding continuation of such prosecution to be an abuse of process of law, the High Court allowed the petitions and quashed FIR No. 49/2017 dated November 15, 2017, the chargesheet pending before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Udhampur, and the order framing charges against the petitioners.
The petitioners were represented by Advocates A K Sharma and Ajay Kumar while the respondents were represented by Government advocate Sumeet Bhatia and Advocate Ashish Sharma.
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