[S.498A IPC] Non-Recovery Of Dowry Articles Cannot Be Only Ground For Denying Anticipatory Bail To Husband: Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that non-recovery of dowry articles cannot ordinarily be the only grounds for declining a plea for grant of anticipatory bail to a husband or his relatives, accused of cruelty.

These observations came in a plea by the husband who was seeking anticipatory bail for the offenses of allegedly committing cruelty upon his wife under Sections 406, 498-A IPC. Opposing the bail, the wife argued that the entire dowry articles were yet to be recovered from the petitioner who is intentionally avoiding handing them over.

In allowing the plea, a single bench of Justice Sumeet Goel observed that "Ordinarily, a Court cannot possibly enter into the realm of recovery at the stage of consideration of a plea for anticipatory bail as such stage is a nascent one & it would be more appropriate that such a question of entrustment/recovery etc. be gone into by the trial court at an appropriate stage...the very nature of Istri-dhan itself renders it incomparable with a typical money dispute. Therefore, a case for anticipatory bail under Section 498-A of IPC is required to be dealt with accordingly by exercising a higher degree of empathy and sensitivity as compared to an other criminal case relating to cheating etc. wherein typically the question of money is involved.

The wife submitted that when the marriage was solemnized, sufficient dowry was given and around Rs.25 lakhs was spent on the marriage including gold ornaments etc. It was argued that the accused was never satisfied with the same, and immediately after her marriage, she was maltreated, harassed, and taunted by her in-laws including the petitioner for bringing less dowry.

It was submitted that the wife was also subjected to physical cruelty and the petitioner was intentionally not handing over the dowry articles to his wife.

Considering the submissions, the Court noted that non-recovery of dowry articles cannot ordinarily be a ground for declining a plea for the grant of anticipatory bail to the husband or his relatives.

It however noted that the conduct of an accused is a relevant factor for consideration of an anticipatory bail plea and such conduct would include the cooperation by the accused for recovery of dowry articles

It was held that in exceptional cases, based on the circumstances, a Court could direct the accused to deposit in Court or remit to the complainant-wife an appropriate amount towards the dowry articles, on a purely case-to-case basis.

In the present case, the Court noted that it was neither the stand of the State nor the complainant that the petitioner had misused the concession of interim bail by the Court by threatening witnesses or influencing the investigation etc.

However, the State counsel and counsel for the complainant had argued that complete recovery of dowry articles was yet to be effected.

In such circumstances, the Court directed that the order for anticipatory bail be made absolute, and allowed the plea.

Kanhiya Soni, Advocate for the petitioner

Hemant Aggarwal, AAG Punjab.

 Harmanpreet Kaur  and Naresh Paul Advocate for the complainant.

Title: XXX v. XXX

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (PH) 43

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