Acquittal in criminal case does not bar returning of dowry articles: SC sets aside Allahabad High Court ruling

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that the acquittal of the accused in a criminal trial does not mean that an application filed for return of dowry articles would also be rejected.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Rajesh Bindal allowed a plea by Nirmala Chauhan against rejection of her petition by the Allahabad High Court regarding return of dowry articles, given to her deceased daughter.

"If dowry articles are given without a demand, regardless whether an offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act is committed, they still may have to be returned in view of the provisions of the Act considering that in absence of any children of the deceased, the mother would be the natural heir of the deceased," the bench said.

Chauhan assailed the Allahabad High Court's April 16, 2024 order which dismissed a revision plea filed by her for setting aside the order of the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ghaziabad of October 31, 2023.

Chauhan was the mother of a daughter who passed away and whose dowry articles were to be returned to the parents of the deceased under Section 6(3) of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

Her counsel said an application to that effect was filed before the Magistrate concerned which was dismissed on the ground that the husband’s family of the deceased were tried and acquitted in the criminal case.

The counsel contended that notwithstanding the acquittal of the accused in the criminal case, the application under Section 6(3) of the Act would have to be adjudicated on its own merits.

The High Court here failed to consider whether the application under Section 6(3) of the Act was maintainable or not and if it was maintainable, whether it could have been summarily dismissed as was done by the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate.

On the opposite, the counsel for the respondents submitted that the accused have been acquitted in the criminal trial and the charge of demand of dowry has not been proved as against them.

Therefore, the application seeking for return of dowry articles is prima facie not maintainable. The application, filed before the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, was also barred by limitation.

"We have perused the order of the Magistrate as well as the High Court. Neither the Magistrate nor the High Court has dismissed the complaint on the ground that it was barred by limitation. In view thereof, we refrain from expressing any opinion whether the complaint/application under Section 6(3) of the Act was barred by limitation," the bench said.

So far acquittal of the accused in the criminal trial is concerned, the bench said, "We are of the view that acquittal of the accused in criminal trial would not warrant rejection of the application for return of the dowry articles".

The court said as all these aspects have not been addressed by the High Court in a challenge laid to the order of the Magistrate, it would set aside the order of the High Court and restore the criminal revision to its original number for a fresh adjudication.