General allegations of dowry leave scar on man's relatives, must be discouraged, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a man's relatives cannot be forced to undergo trial on the basis of general and omnibus allegations of dowry harassment by his wife as this could leave a severe scar on the accused and must be resisted.

"General and omnibus cannot manifest in a situation where the relatives of the complainant’s husband are forced to undergo trial. A criminal trial leading to an eventual acquittal also inflicts severe scars upon the accused, and such an exercise must therefore be discouraged," a bench of justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari said.

In its judgement, the top court allowed an appeal filed by family members of Md Ikram of Purnea against the Patna High Court's judgement for quashing of an FIR on allegations of dowry demand of a car and threat to terminate the pregnancy of his wife.

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The court said the FIR of April 1, 2019, revealed only general allegations that all accused harassed her mentally and threatened her to terminate her pregnancy. The allegations are, therefore, general and omnibus, and can at best be said to have been made out on account of small skirmishes, the bench said.

The bench also pointed out that the court has, at numerous instances, expressed concern over the misuse of Section 498A of the IPC and the increased tendency of implicating relatives of the husband in matrimonial disputes, without analysing the long-term ramifications of a trial on the complainant as well as the accused.

"It is further manifest that false implication by way of general omnibus allegations made in the course of matrimonial dispute, if left unchecked, would result in misuse of the process of law. Therefore, this court by way of its judgements has warned the courts from proceeding against the relatives and in-laws of the husband when no prima facie case is made out against them," the bench added.

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