Wife's Silence For 'Noble Cause' To Save Marriage Can't Be Held Against Her: MP High Court On Cruelty Complaint Lodged After Husband Sought Divorce

Refusing to dismiss the FIR registered against the husband's relatives for cruelty meted out to the wife, Madhya Pradesh High Court has underscored that the complainant-wife's silence in the hopes of saving the marital ties cannot be held against her.

The single-judge bench of Justice Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia noted that the FIR lodged for cruelty cannot be discarded as a 'counterblast' to the divorce petition merely because of the lapse of time that has occurred in filing the criminal complaint. In this case, the time of filing the complaint for cruelty had coincided with the divorce petition filed by the husband.

“If the wife had maintained silence in order to save her marital life and did not lodge the report, then her silence for the noble cause should not be considered against her…Once, the wife had realized that all the chances of reconciliation have vanished on account of filing of divorce petition and if she decided to take action in accordance with law, then she cannot be blamed for the same…”, the bench sitting at Jabalpur held.

Justifying the wife's hesitance to file a complaint at first, the single-judge bench observed that she couldn't be left at the losing end for her 'good gestures of maintaining silence'. She was merely trying to save her marital life, if possible, by withholding information about the cruelty meted out to her, the court explained. There is nothing wrong in filing the complaint for the in-laws' cruelty only after realising that the marriage was beyond repair, the court remarked.

Such delay in filing the complaint does not make it a mere retaliation from the wife against the husband who filed a divorce petition, the court inferred.

The court added that specific allegations had been levelled in the FIR against the elder brother-in-laws and the sister-in-law, who are applicants in the current petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C. The averments include that they demanded for a Fortuner Car and 20 Tolas of Gold within four months of the marriage that was solemnised in 2017. The FIR states that the complainant had been forcefully evicted from the matrimonial home in 2021 on account of non-payment of the dowry demanded by the applicants. All these elements constitute the offence of mental cruelty in the preliminary analysis, the court concluded while refusing to interfere with the criminal proceedings.

On another aspect, the court also pointed out that the woman alone is the owner of her stridhan, and she can't be faulted for taking the said stridhan along with her to her parent's house.

The applicant-relatives had submitted before the High Court that the wife previously assaulted the husband with a knife, and the FIR for cruelty was a mere 'counterblast' to the divorce petition. The husband filed the divorce petition on 16^th November, 2021. Upon receiving notice of the divorce proceedings, the wife went on to lodge a complaint on 31^st November 2021, it was contended by the applicants.

During the wife's period of stay at the matrimonial house that spanned over four years, she never once made a complaint to the police, as admitted by the complainant herself, the applicants argued.

On the aspect of the abdomen injury, the court pointed out that the husband himself mentioned in the written complaint given to Shahdol SP that the injury was self-inflicted. No criminal case has been registered against the wife based on the said complaint. This written complaint has also been produced along with the petition.

“…Although, the counsel for applicants had read the complaint, in which it was specifically mentioned by …..that he himself had caused injury by Knife on his abdominal region, in spite of that the counsel for applicants tried to mislead this Court by making a submission that it was the respondent No.2 who had given a knife blow in the abdominal region of her husband…”, the court further added about the misrepresentation made.

Case No: Misc. Criminal Case No. 12469 of 2024 & Misc. Criminal Case No. 48243 of 2024

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (MP) 87

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