Section 498A is rampantly misused, says high court quashing an FIR against 86-year-old

Section 498A not a tool to settle scores: Justice Bhatt

Allegations made against the mother-in-law only to rope her in the FIR

Updated: Jun 28th, 2023


Quashing an FIR against an 86-year-old applicant, the Gujarat high court emphasised the misuse of the IPC 498A, the section for physical or mental cruelty against women regarding the demand for the dowry.

Section 498A not a tool to settle scores: Justice Bhatt

The court said that the section is misused rampantly to harass the family members of the husband. According to Justice Sandeep Bhatt, criminal prosecutions in the court must not be used as a tool to harass or seek private vendetta to settle scores.

Quashing an FIR made by the daughter-in-law complainant against the applicant, the 86-year-old mother-in-law, Bhatt said that further proceedings have no fruitful purpose and will only cause hardships for the applicant.

Mother-in-law wrongly implicated

The court said that general allegations have been made against the mother-in-law only to rope her in the FIR, without solid evidence. The court observed that the mother-in-law was wrongly implicated.

The FIR was filed by the daughter-in-law, against her husband and the in-laws in 2016, stating that the husband and in-laws had harassed her demanding dowry. The alleged affair of the husband was also mentioned in the FIR, and the wife said that she had faced physical abuse after confronting her husband about the extra-marital affair.

The applicants moved to the court to quash the FIR in 2017, and during the proceedings, the father-in-law of the complainant died.

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