One off-key conduct by in-laws cannot be called cruelty under Section 498A: Supreme Court

A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

The Supreme Court has held that one discordant instance of bad behaviour could not be classified as harassment or cruelty for dowry under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

“The instance, unless portentous, in the absence of any material evidence of interference and involvement in the marital life of the complainant, may not be sufficient to implicate the person as having committed cruelty under Section 498A of the IPC,” a Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna clarified in a recent order.

The court was hearing the appeal of a woman from Karnataka, who was accused by her newly-wed sister-in-law of using foul language and dumping the latter’s personal belongings in the dustbin.

Section 498A mandates that “whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be pun­ished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine”.

However, the Bench found that the accused woman was not even living in the same house as her sister-in-law. In fact, the woman was based abroad.

The court found that the brother’s wife had not given any specific details of the cruelty committed on her by the woman.

The Bench said that the woman’s brother had already divorced his wife in 2022. The allegations of her sister-in-law against her were “very vague and general”.

“Accordingly, we quash the criminal proceedings against the appellants. However, we clarify that if any material comes on record during the recording of evidence, it will be open to the trial court to proceed according to the law,” the court ordered.