The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed a case brought by a woman against her estranged husband and his parents for domestic violence and cruelty, stating that if a married woman is asked to do household chores for the family, that cannot be compared to the work of domestic help and would not constitute cruelty.
The First Information Report or police case brought against the man and his parents was dismissed on October 21 by a division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rajesh Patil.
The woman said in her complaint that after being married, they treated her nicely for one month before treating her like a “maid servant.”
Additionally, she stated that a month after their marriage, her husband and his parents began demanding 4 lakh to purchase a car. The woman claimed in her lawsuit that her husband then physically and mentally harassed her as a result of this demand.
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The high court observed in its ruling that the woman had not detailed any specific act of harassment in her complaint, only that she had been harassed.
“If a married lady is asked to do household work definitely for the purpose of the family, it cannot be said it is like a maid servant. If she had no wish to do her household activities, then she ought to have told it either before the marriage so that the bridegroom can rethink the marriage itself or if it is after marriage, then such problem ought to have been sorted out earlier,” the court ruled.
Further, it stated that unless specific acts are mentioned, the phrase harassment ‘mentally and physically’ alone does not constitute a violation of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
The high court judge noted that “unless those acts are described, it cannot be concluded whether those acts amounted to harassment or subjecting a person to cruelty.”
The court accepted the husband and his parents’ petition to dismiss the case, stating that the accusations the wife made against the husband would not constitute an offence under the clause.
(With inputs with PTI)
