The Bombay High Court has decried the practice of wives to falsely implicate the husband and his relatives in fake dowry harassment charges of section 498A.
In Sandeep S/o Devidas Aware VERSUS State of Maharashtra (Bombay High Court) (Nagpur Bench), the Court held as follows:
“It is noticed that now a days in the proceedings arising out of matrimonial discord, there is tendency of wife to implicate the husband and his family members in the web of crime. The police complaint is considered in such matters as the only panacea to teach lesson to the family members of the husband. As such, only out of ulterior motive to settled personal score wife makes generalized and sweeping accusation unsupported by concrete evidence. As a result, the family members of husband has to face the agony of criminal trial, when no prima facie case is made out against them.”
It was also held that there were no specific allegation disclosing date, time and place or manner in which alleged harassment meted out at the hands of relatives of family members. There are only allegations against husband.
The Court held that offense under Section 498-A, 323, 504, 506 and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act is not at all attracted against the relatives of husband.