Further, this Court in preeti Gupta v. Sfafe of Jharkhand

Petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Court may be pleased to quash the proceedings in C.C. No. 447 of 2022 on the file of the X Metropolitan Magistrate at Athvelly, against the Petitioners/Accused NO 1 to 3. I.A. N :'l OF 2024 Petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C praying that in the circumstances stated in the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition, the High Court may be pleased to stay all further proceedings in C.C. No. 447 ot 2022 on the file of the X Metropolitan Magistrate at Athvelly, against the Petitioners/Accused NO 1 to 3. including their appearance pending disposal of the above Criminal petition. This Petition coming on for hearing, upon perusing the Memorandum of Grounds of Criminal Petition and upon hearing the arguments of Sri MALIpEDDI SRINIVAS REDDY, Advocate for the Petitioner and Sri M.Ramachandra Reddy, the Additional Public Prosecutor on behalf of the Respondent No.l and none appeared for the Respondent No.2. The Court made the following: ORDER THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE JUWADI SRIDEVI CRIMINAL PETITION No.6383 ot 2024 ORDER This Criminal Petition is filed by the petitioners-accused Nos.1 to 3 seeking to quash the proceedings against them in C.C.No.44Z of 2022 on the file of the learned X Metropolitan lVlagistrate at Athvelly. The offences alleged against the petitioners are under Sections 498-4 of the lrrdian Penal Code (for short 'lPC') and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act (for short 'the Act').

02. Heard Sri Malipeddi Srinivas Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri [tl.Ramacharrdra Reddy, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the State- respondent No.1 as well as Sri D. Madhava Rao, learned counsel for the unofficial respondent No.2. Perused the record.

03. ln brief, the case of the prosecution is that the marriage between the petitioner-accused No. 1 and the respondent No.2 was solemnized on 19.'l 12OO9. lt is alleged that ever since the marriage, the petitioners-accused 2 Nos.1 to 3 have subjected the respondent No.2 to physical and mental cruelty in connection with their unlawful demand for additional dowry and also on the ground that she was unable to conceive and beget a child. lt is further alleged that on 11.01.2022, at about 11:00 hours, the petitioner- accused No.1 beat and dragged the respondent No.2 out of the bedroom. Based on these ailegations, the respondent No.2 lodged the present complaint alleging offences punishable under Sections 498-A of IPC & 3, 4 of the Act

04. Learned counsel for the petltioners contended that the petitioners have no involvement whatsoever in the alleged offences and that they never subjected the respondent No.2 to any form of harassment. lt is submitted that the petitioners-accused Nos.1 to 3 are the husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law and that the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 are aged about 66 and 70 years, respectively. lt is further submitted that the petitioners-accused Nos.1 to 3 never harassed the respondent No.2, and that the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 never intedered in the matrimonial affairs between the respondent No.2 and petitioner-accused No.1. The petitioners have never made \ \ \ \ 3 any demand for dowry from the respondent No.i2. There are no specific or substantive allegations against the petitioners, nor is there any medical evidence to support the prosecutiorr's case. lt is further submitted that the contents of the complaint and the charge sheet do not Cisclose the essential irrgredients necessary to constitute the offences punishable under Section 498-4 of IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the Act

05. With the above submissions, learned counsel for the petitioners-accused Nos. 1 to 3 while pralring for the quashment of criminal proceedings relied upon a decision of the Honourable Supreme Court of lndia in Dara Lakshmi Narayana and others y. Sfate of Telangana and anotherl wherein the Honourable Supreme Court of lndia at Paragraph Nos.18, 24,25,28,29,31 & 32 hetd that: "18. A bare perusal of the FIR shows that the allegations made by respondent No.2 are va{tue and omnibus. Other than claiming that appellant No.7 harassed her and that appellant Nos.2 trt 6 instigated him to do so, respondent No.2 has not provided any specific details or descibed any particular instance of harassmenl. She has a/so not mentioned the time, date, place, or manner in which tlte alleged harassment occurred. ' etn zo2s supREtr,tE couRT i 73 4 Therefore, the FIR lacks concrete and precise allegations.

24. lnsofar as appellant Nos.2 to 6 are ccncerned, we find that they have no connection to the matter at hand and have been dragged into the web of crime without any rhyme or reason. A perusal of the FIR would indicate that no substantial and specific allegations have been made against appellant Nos.2 to 6 other than stating that they used to instigate appellant No.1 for demanding more dowry. /f is a/so an admitted fact that they never resided with the couple namely appellant No.l and respondent No.2 and their children. Appellant Nos.2 and 3 resided together at Guntakal, Andhra Fradesh. Appellant tVos. 4 to 6 live in Nellore, Bengaluru and Guntur respectively.

25. A mere reference to the names of family members in a criminal case arising out of a matrimonial dispute, without specific allegations indicating their active involvement should be nipped in the bud. lt is a well-recognised fact, borne out of judicial experience, that there is often a tendency to implicate all the members of the husband's family when domestic dispufes arise out of a matrimonial discord. Such generalised and sweeping accusations unsupported by concrete evidence or pafticularised allegations cannot form the basis for criminal prosecution. Courts must exercise caution in such cases fo prevent mrsuse of legal provisions and the legal process and avoid unnecessary harassment of innocent family members. ln the present case, appellant Nos.2 to 6, who are the members of the family of appellant No.1 have been tiving in different cities and have not resided in the matrimonial house of appettant No.1 and i\ \ \ 5 respondent No.Z herein. Hence, they cannot be dragged into criminal prosecution and the same would be an abuse of the process of the law in the atbsence of specific allegations made against each 'tf them 28 The inclusion of Secfion 49BA of the IPC by watl of arl amendment was intended to curb crueltv inflicted on a woman by her husband itnd his family, ensuring swift intervention by the Sfafe. However, in recent years, as there hizve been a notable rlse in matrimonial dispufes across the country, accompanied by grow'ing discord and tension within the institution of marriage, consequenlily, there has been a growing tendency to misuse provisions like Secfion 498A of the IPC as a to;ol for unleashing personal vendetta against the husband and his family by a wife. Making vague and generalis;ed allegations during matrimonial conflicts, if .not scrutinized, will lead to the misuse of legal processes and an encouragement for use of arm twisting tactics by a wife and/or her family. Sometimes, recourse is taken to invoke Section 49BA of the IPC againsf fhe husband and his family in order to seek compliance with t'he unrea{ionable demands of a wife. Consequently, this Court has, time and again, cautioned against prosec:uting the husband and his family in the absence of a clear prima facie case against the,n.

29. We are not, for a moment, stating that any woman who has suffered cruelty in terms of what has been contemplated under Section 4984 of the IPC sltould remain silent and forbear herself from making a complaint or initiating any criminal proceeding. That is not the intention of our aforesaid observations but we should not encourage a case like as in the present one, 6 where as a counterblast to the petition for dissolution of marriage sought by the first appellant-husband of the second respondent herein, a complaint under Section 4gBA of the IPC is lodged by the latter. ln fact, the inseriion of the sard provision is meant mainty for the protection of a woman who is subjected to cruelty in the matrimonial home primarily due to an unlawful demand for any property or valuable security in the fcrm of dowry. However, sometimes if rs misused as ln the present case.

31. Further, this Court in preeti Gupta vs. Sfafe of Jharkhand (2010) 7 S'CC 667 held that the courts have to be extremely careful and cautious in dealing with fhese complaints and must take pragmatic realties into consideration while dealing with matrimonial cases. The ailegations of harassment by the husband's c/ose relatives who had been living in different cities and never visited or rarely visited the place where the complainant resided would have an entirety different complexion. The allegations of the complainant are required to be scrutinized with great care and circumspection.

32. We, therefore, are of the opinion that the impugned FIR No.B2 of 2022 filed by respondent No.2 was initiated with ulterior motives to setile personal scores and grudges against appeilant No.1 and his family members i.e., appettant Nos.2 to 6 herein. Hence, the present case at hand falts within category (T) of iltustrative parameters highlighted in Bhajan Lat. Therefore, the High Court, in the present case, erred in not exercising the powers available to it under Secfion 482 CrpC and thereby, failed to prevent abuse of the Court's process by continuing the criminal prosecution against the appellants." \ \ \ ,. 7

06. Learned Additional Public prosecutor for the State-respondent No.1 as well as learned counsel for the respondent No.2 submitted that there are specific allegations against the petitioners, which are triable issues. 'fhe truth or otherwise would come out only after conducting trial by the concerned Court and prayed to dismiss this Criminal petition. 07 A bare perusal of the contents of the charge sheet reveals that the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 are the aged parents of the petitioner-accused No. 1. Although it is alleged that they demanded additional dowry, the charge sheet does not specify the quantum of the alleged demand. ln Disha Kapoor y. Stafe of lJttar pradesh2 it lvas by the Honourable Supreme Court at paragraph No.9 that: "9. We cannot but also observe that the>re is no specific allegation of any physical violence except fcr vague statements made about the petitioner having been beaten up, in which she sustarned a fracture and having been subjected to physicat and mental tofture. There is no evidence of a treatment undergone to substantiate the altegation; especialty when the petitioner ls sard to have suffered a fracture."

08. ln the present case on hand, it was alleged that the respondent No.2 was subjected to physical harassment ' atn zozs supReuE couRT 2273 8 by way of beating and dragging lrer out of bed room. However, there is neither any medical evidence nor any statement from a competent medical practitioner to substantiate this allegation. [vloreover, the charge sheet lacks specific details or descriptive particulars of any specific instances of harassment allegedly caused by the petitioners- accused Nos.2 and 3.

09. Upon a careful scrutiny of the averments in the charge sheet, it is evident that, in order to substantiate the basic allegations against the petitioners/accused Nos.2 and 3 for the alieged offences, the police have exanrined a total of twelve witnesses, out of which four are the respondent No.2, her close relatives and her friend, who are admittedly interested witnesses; three are mediators to the panchayat, who appears to be a hearsay witnesses; one is a bank manager, who speaks about the bank transactions of the accused No.1, two are panch witnesses; and the remaining two are police officials. Furthermore, there is no statement on record from any competent medical practitioner to establish that the complainant was subjected to physical cruelty. \ \ t .r/ 9 '10. Making vague and generalised allegations during matrimonial conflicts, if not scrutinized, will lead to the misuse of legal processes and an encouragement for use of arm twisting tactics by a wife and/or her family. Sometimes, recourse is taken to invoke Section 498-A of the lpC against the husband and his family in order to seek compliance with the unreasonable demands of a wife. Therefore, the Courts are bound to ensure whether there is any prima facie case against the husband and his family members before prosecuting them Hence, the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 cannot be dragged into criminal prosecution and the same would be an abuse of process of the law in the absence of specific allegations made against each of them

11. Except the bald allegations, therr.. are no substantial or specific allegations have been maCe against the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3. The charge sheet does not attribute even a single specific instance of cruelty, harassment, or demand for dowry to the petitioners_accused Nos.2 and 3. ln the absence of any cogent nraterial or specific allegations constituting cruelty or harassment in 10 connection with dowry, subjecting the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 to the trial would be unjust and amount to abuse of the process of law.

12. ln view of the facts and circumstances of the case including the settled principre of law laid down by the Honourable supreme court of rndia in the above decision, this Court is of the considei'ed opinion that the continuation of the proceedings against the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 amounts to abuse of process of raw, therefore, the proceedings against the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 are liable to be quashed 13- Accordingly, this criminal petition is parfly allowed and the prcceedings against the petitioners-accused Nos.2 and 3 in c.c.No.447 of 2oz2 on the file of the learned X Metropolitan Magistrate at Athvelty, are hereby quashed.

14. lnsofar as the petitioner-accused No.1 is concerned, the learned trial court is directed to proceed with the trial in accordance with raw, uninfluenced by any observations made in this order, and to conclude the trial as expeditiously as possible. However, the personal \ \ \ 11 appearance of the petitioner-accused No.1 before the learned trial Courl shall stand dispensed with, except when his presence is specifically required during the course of the trial, subject to the condition that he shall be duly represented by his learned counsel on each ancl every date of hearing As a sequel, pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed ,TTRUE COPY/' tot-r.vt.tAY KUMAR irtutv prsrRAR SECTION OFFICER t' TO, The X Metropolitan Magistrgtg aJ Athvetly' T he )fi I I I rUetrop o tita; ila;;if The Station ff or="'dficei-iotic-e-Station' Alwal' Cyberabad "te Two ccs to the puElic pROSECU;oc, Hign coyrt at llvderabad' (ouT) one cc to sRt rrin'lrproDr sRtNlvns iirooY Advocate [oPuc] Two CD CoPies Jr/led ch a l' cvbe ra b ad

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6 TPK/PSL HIGH COURT DATED:2911012025 I ORDER CRLP.No.6383 of 2024 c,tr{ Ti'lt: ;; Lq ? t illl/ Irw f. Z C) n .(! .-* CRIMINAL PETITION IS PARTLY ALLOWED