Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Allahabad High Court has quashed an FIR against a man and his family in a case alleging dowry harassment, physical assault and an attempt to strangulate the wife, while warning against the routine criminalisation of failed marriages. The court said turning every distressed or broken marriage into a criminal case could affect the institution of marriage at its core.
A division bench of Justices Chandra Dhari Singh and Tarun Saxena allowed a writ petition filed by Gaurav Jain and his family members and set aside the FIR registered at Hari Parvat police station in Agra under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Dowry Prohibition Act. The court said matrimonial discord cannot automatically be treated as criminality and that criminal proceedings cannot replace adjudication before a matrimonial court.
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According to the case record, the marriage took place on November 12, 2024, and the wife left the matrimonial home on February 3, 2025, after about two-and-a-half months of cohabitation. The husband then filed a divorce petition on May 3, 2025, and the FIR was registered on June 30, 2025.
The FIR alleged dowry demands and harassment, denial of food, threats, retention of the wife’s stridhan and an attempt to strangulate her. However, the high court noted that no domestic violence complaint, police control room call or contemporaneous police intervention relating to the alleged incidents during the period of cohabitation had been placed on record.
In its judgment dated October 8, the court said that while protecting women from dowry-related violence and cruelty is a statutory and constitutional imperative, the possibility of misuse of criminal law cannot be ignored. It said that if every distressed or failed marriage is routinely converted into an FIR and subjected to the coercive machinery of criminal law, the institution of marriage will inevitably be affected at its core. The court clarified that it had not examined the merits of the pending matrimonial proceedings and said both sides were free to pursue their remedies before the competent matrimonial court, while the complainant could also seek any independent remedy available in law for a distinct cause of action, subject to statutory requirements.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
