Forcing daughter-in-law to sleep on carpet, verbal abuse not cruelty: Bombay High Court

Bombay High Court’s bench in the Indian state of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad has overturned a 20-year-old court order that convicted a man and his family for cruelty towards his late wife. The court said that allegations of not allowing their daughter-in-law to watch TV, forcing her to sleep on the carpet, not letting her visit the temple alone, and verbally abusing her were not “severe” actions under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Section 498A of the IPC states, “Whoever being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend for three years and shall also be liable to fine.”

The high court observed that the nature of these allegations involving domestic problems do not amount to physical and mental torture. The man, along with his brother and parents were acquitted by the High Court for these offences and IPC Section 306 (abetment of suicide).

The couple in question got married in December 2002, and the woman committed suicide in May 2003, due to alleged ill-treatment by her in-laws.

In an October 17 order, the single judge bench of Justice Abhay S Waghwase dismissed the allegations of cruelty towards her. The woman’s family also complained that her in-laws demanded dowry and would send her to fetch water at midnight.

However, the court noted that the village of Varangaon, where they lived, usually received the water supply around midnight and families would go to fetch water around that time.

“There is a gap of almost two months since deceased, complainant and witnesses met each other. They (mother, uncle and aunt of deceased) have admitted that, there was no communication from deceased either written or oral, she has not conveyed that there was any instances of cruelty in proximity to suicide. There is no evidence to show that at that relevant point or any proximity to the suicide, there was any demand, cruelty or mal-treatment so as to connect them with the suicidal death. What triggered the suicide has remained a mystery,” the high court wrotein its order, as per LiveLaw.

(With inputs from agencies)