Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.482 – Penal Code, 1860 – ss.341, 323, 498A and 34 – Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 – ss.3 and 4 – Dowry case against in-laws – Quashing of criminal proceedings – FIR by complainant-wife against her husband, parents-in-law-appellants, and sister-in-law alleging that she was subjected to persistent torture and cruelty, on account of dowry demands, that the husband physically assaulted her, and on the day FIR was filed, accused persons, attempted to strangulate her – Seperate complaint filed before Judicial Magistrate making further allegations against the accused persons – Appellants filed application for anticipatory bail, which was allowed – Judicial Magistrate took cognizance of the offences – Petition by parents-in-laws and sister-in-law seeking quashing of the order whereby Judicial Magistrate taking cognizance of the offences – High Court quashed the proceedings against sister-in-law, however dismissed the petition as regards the appellants – Correctness: Held: High Court erred in restricting the quashing of criminal proceedings only to the sister-in-law – Comparative reading of the FIR reveals that the allegations levelled against the sister-in-law and those against the appellants are, in all material particulars, identical – FIR does not assign any specific or overt act to either appellant; there are no particular dates, places, or individual acts attributed to them – Lone allegation that stands separately against the appellants is that they would quarrel does not constitute a criminal offence and cannot, by itself, sustain cognizance of the offences for which the appellants have been summoned – Standard applied by the High Court in quashing proceedings against the sister-in-law, on the ground that the allegations against her were general and omnibus, applies with equal force to the appellants, and there is no principled basis for distinguishing between them – Husband filed the divorce petition as early as 21 months after the marriage – Criminal complaint against appellants was, however, lodged nearly a year after the filing of the divorce petition – Though this delay, standing alone, would not constitute a sufficient ground for quashing the criminal proceedings against appellants, however, viewed in conjunction with the absence of any specific allegations attributable to them, the delay lends credence to the submission that the criminal complaint against the in-laws may have been instituted by way of a counter-blast to the divorce proceedings initiated by the husband – When these considerations are read together, continuation of the criminal proceedings against the appellants cannot be sustained – High Court erred in applying different standards to persons who stand on an identical footing insofar as the nature of the allegations against them is concerned – Since the allegations against the appellants and sister-in-law are, in substance, the same, the reasoning that led the High Court to quash the proceedings against sister-in-law ought equally to have led to the quashing of proceedings against the appellants – Impugned order, to the extent that it declined to extend such relief to the appellants, cannot be sustained and set aside. [Paras 10, 11]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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