regarding marital disputes Supreme Court Has given an important decision. The court has said that if the husband’s relatives ask the woman to adjust the marriage or return to her maternal home, then it cannot be considered as criminal cruelty. Such behavior may be morally wrong, but it cannot be categorized as a criminal act.
What is the matter?
​The bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice N Kotishwar Singh has given this decision in a case of Madhya Pradesh. The complainant in the case was married in 2019. After a dispute with her husband, apart from her husband, she also filed a case of dowry harassment, cruelty and domestic violence against her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. The in-laws went to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, but the High Court refused to cancel the case.
Supreme Court order
Now Supreme Court After hearing both the parties, the court has canceled all the criminal cases pending against the in-laws. The court has said that sometimes relatives remain ‘mute spectators’ in marital disputes or take the husband’s side, but this is not a crime. It is not a crime in itself for family members to advise the complainant to adjust to the relationship. The case should proceed only when there is an allegation of their active participation in a crime.
‘The allegations of torture have no merit’
The judges have recorded in the order that after marriage, the woman lived with her husband in Sheopur, while her in-laws lived in Shivpuri. In such a situation, the allegation of continuous harassment from the in-laws does not seem strong. The allegations made by the woman were very general, vague and without any concrete evidence. The court also said that the husband and wife were divorced in the family court while the case was pending. In such a situation, continuing to file a criminal case against the in-laws without any concrete evidence is a misuse of the law.
‘Don’t make law a weapon of revenge’
​The court expressed deep concern over the tendency to drag the entire family into marital disputes. The order states, ‘It is normal to feel bitter when marital relations deteriorate, but it is wrong to drag the entire family of the spouse into criminal litigation because of this. Criminal law cannot be allowed to become a vehicle for revenge.
