The Rajesh Sharma judgment with new guidelines to be followed in IPC 498A cases was pronounced in 2017 by a two judge bench, and it was much celebrated by some people and hailed as a path-breaking judgment, as if following of those guidelines would automatically take away all fear of arrest, roping in of all family members, or the possibility of facing criminal trial in Indian system for 5-10 years! Several guidelines/directions were issued in that judgment, and the gist of those were: constitution of Family Welfare Committees (FWC), designated IO for IPC 498A cases, possibility/promotion of culture of less …[Continue Reading]
IPC 498a related judgments
This category contains IPC 498a related judgments. Some of them provide full text of the judgment along with my own analysis, and others contain my analysis of 498a judgments being reported in media.
Exemption from personal appearance to be granted for reason of long distance between accused’s residence and place of trial–Supreme Court in IPC 498A/DP Act case
This March 2018 judgment from Supreme Court might just have created an important precedent and reasoning that a long distance between place of trial from residence of accused persons is a valid and reasonable ground for allowing exemption from personal appearance of accused in a criminal trial. The case pertains to IPC 498A and Dowry Prohibition act, however the judgment does not seem to be limited in its applicability, so it can be used for cases filed under other IPC sections, too. Incidentally, the appellants/accused in this case are family members of Arnesh Kumar who was the appellant in the …[Continue Reading]
SC 2017 guidelines on IPC 498A misuse: family welfare committees, designated IO, less arrests/more settlements, easier bail, recovery of articles, personal exemption to family members etc
Update 14/09/2018: The Rajesh Sharma judgment covered here has been reviewed by Supreme Court, and this article covers the salient points of judgment along with its full text. Update 13/10/2017: The judgment is now up for a revisit by SC (so soon!), and the reason for review is: “We can’t write law. We can only interpret the law.” SC To Revisit The Judgment By Two Judge Bench On Abuse Of Section 498A IPC [Read Petition] The women’s NGO (comprising of women advocates) which wanted a review of the judgment gave reasoning and statistics about how rural women benefit from IPC 498A and …[Continue Reading]
Patna HC acknowledges bail scam in IPC 498A, grants anticipatory bail under CrPC 438 to husband
Thanks to a reader, we have this judgment of Patna High Court on topic of arrest and anticipatory bail. Even though the Supreme Court’s Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar & Anr. judgment has been in operation since July 2014, which clearly says that departmental action can be initiated against magistrates if they routinely grant accused to be placed in custody for offences with punishment less than 7 years; it seems that judgment has had no effect in state of Bihar so far. Because in this case, the Patna HC has acknowledged the “very disturbing state of practice prevailing in …[Continue Reading]
In 498A/406 case, Jharkhand HC rejects lower court’s NBW, and CrPC 82 proclamation for absconding persons
Thanks to a reader, we have this interesting judgment on topic of arrest and bail; and it highlights the rot that has become India, and the rot and zombie-hood exists in all branches of official life: be it executive (police department), or judiciary. So the usual Indian trick of pointing finger at another department will not work in this case. Citizens are not above blame either, because they seem to firmly believe that the rot exists in government, and it can’t be fixed; so all their energy is spent on finding shortcuts and escape techniques, rather than improving the system. …[Continue Reading]
Prima-facie IPC 406 charge dropped but 498A charge framed against accused husband – Delhi MM court
This judgment is useful to understand that for a trial to happen for a particular IPC section, the contents of FIR should prima-facie disclose a crime under that IPC section. In this particular judgment, it was held that the allegations in FIR constitute prima-facie a charge of IPC 498A, but there is no specific allegation to try the accused husband under IPC 406, so IPC 406 charge is dropped. Important part of judgment below: 10. As far as charge U/s 406 IPC is concerned after perusal of the complaint it is revealed that there is no specific allegations of entrustment …[Continue Reading]
False dowry harassment aka 498a case ground for divorce, says Supreme Court
Note: the primary intention of this website is not to inform on how to get divorce from cruel wife, so people who are visiting with that intention can read my book or any other book on cruelty on husbands. And maybe stop asking the MRAs about how to get divorce based on cruelty/desertion etc, because most of them have no expertise on those topics anyway. Original post continues below: If a woman’s complaint accusing her husband and in-laws of cruelty under the dreaded Section 498A of Indian Penal Code turns out to be false, then the man is entitled to …[Continue Reading]
Delhi court says police must follow SC guidelines against casual arrest in 498a case etc
After Jul, 2014 SC judgment against automatic arrest under 498a and home ministry advisory to follow CrPC 41 and 41a guidelines to avoid arbitrary arrest in 498a (and offences less than 7 years punishment), probably a first judgment has come from a Delhi court criticizing the Punjab police investigation officer for doing his supposedly god-given duty of proceeding to arrest the Delhi resident after a IPC 498a complaint was filed in Amritsar, Punjab. It’s about time that police learn to follow the law else it’s a matter of time someone who was arbitrarily arrested without following CrPC 41, 41a by …[Continue Reading]
No automatic arrest in 498a, says Supreme Court
Newly issued 27 July 2017 judgment with guidelines by Supreme Court are in this post: SC 2017 guidelines on IPC 498A misuse: family welfare committees, designated IO, less arrests/more settlements, easier bail, recovery of articles, personal exemption to family members etc Original post continues below: Supreme court has been giving judgments on misuse of IPC 498a for many number of years, and they had even asked the law ministry to consider amending it. Many states have police circulars already on doing investigation or taking permission of higher police like DCP before arresting under 498a, but there is no guarantee that these …[Continue Reading]
Let the games begin–MIL can file DV on DIL
There is real good news for all those feminist mother in laws, who celebrated when the abominable DV Act (PWDVA) was passed. Due to a their collective sad karma some of them later got the short end of the stick when their daughter in laws realized their newly discovered route of quick women-empowerment-by-filing-DV-case-on-in-laws and starting kicking them. Now Delhi HC has upheld the DV case filed by a mother in law on her daughter in law (see judgment below). Let the feminist mother in laws rejoice, after all now they can now file the case at least, not sure if …[Continue Reading]
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