Section 498A being misused to force husband to comply with wife's unreasonable demands: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over the rampant misuse of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which penalises cruelty by husbands and their relatives against married women [Dara Lakshmi Narayana and Others v. State of Telangana and Another]..A Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh noted that sometimes the provision, originally intended to protect women from domestic violence and harassment, is increasingly being exploited by some women to force her husband and his family to comply with her unreasonable demands."Sometimes, recourse is taken to invoke Section 498A of the IPC against the husband and his family in order to seek compliance with the unreasonable demands of a wife," the Court said.The Court said that there is a growing trend to use the provision as a tool by women for unleashing personal vendetta against the husband and his family."In recent years, as there have been a notable rise in matrimonial disputes across the country, accompanied by growing discord and tension within the institution of marriage, consequently, there has been a growing tendency to misuse provisions like Section 498A of the IPC as a tool for unleashing personal vendetta against the husband and his family by a wife. Making vague and generalised allegations during matrimonial conflicts, if not scrutinized, will lead to the misuse of legal processes and an encouragement for use of arm twisting tactics by a wife and/or her family," the judgment said.The Court made the observations while quashing cases of cruelty and dowry lodged by the wife against her husband and in-laws..The Court was hearing an appeal preferred by the husband and his family members against the Telangana High Court's refusal to quash the case.The wife had filed the said cases against her husband and in-laws after husband moved a plea seeking dissolution of the marriage..After considering the arguments, the Supreme Court said that the cases filed by wife was to settle personal scores and grudges and the wife was misusing the provisions meant originally to protect her."We are not, for a moment, stating that any woman who has suffered cruelty in terms of what has been contemplated under Section 498A of the IPC should remain silent and forbear herself from making a complaint or initiating any criminal proceeding. That is not the intention of our aforesaid observations but we should not encourage a case like as in the present one, where as a counterblast to the petition for dissolution of marriage sought by the first appellant-husband of the second respondent herein, a complaint under Section 498A of the IPC is lodged by the latter," the Court observed while quashing the case..Advocates Shubham Kumar, Anubhav Jain, Nayan Saini, Dhruv Goyal, Honey Verma, Rahul Mohod, Sanjay Gyan, Varnit Sharma and Chand Qureshi appeared for appellants.Advocates Devina Sehgal and S Uday Bhanu appeared for the respondents..This is not the first time the Court has lamented about the misuse of Section 498A.Recently, the Court had remarked as to how the law is among the most abused one..[Read Judgment]