The Supreme Court expressed concern over the cases of fake dowry harassment coming to the fore.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the dowry harassment law is being misused to implicate the in-laws. The court said that taking action against relatives only on the basis of allegations is an abuse of this law as well as legal process. The allegation of dowry harassment is like a stain of never-ending slander for a husband and his relatives. This trend should not be supported.
The Supreme Court said that the near and far relatives of the husband cannot be compelled to face trial and rot in jail on charges of dowry harassment. It is necessary to oppose it by law.
A bench of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari said in its judgment that such a situation arises in the case of allegations made to implicate all relatives and teach a lesson. These later turn out to be cases in which the accused are eventually acquitted, but they remain with serious scars for life.
The Supreme Court made this remark on the petition of Mohammad Ikram of Purnia, Bihar. Ikram’s family members appealed in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Patna High Court.
This appeal was accepted by the court. In this case, a case of dowry harassment was registered against the boy’s family. It is alleged that the accused threatened to get an abortion if the demand of the car was not met. The High Court refused to quash this FIR.
The Supreme Court said that in the FIR dated April 1, 2019, it is revealed that all the accused had common charges like, mentally disturbing and threatening to terminate the pregnancy. In this it can be said that these were imposed due to small skirmishes or disputes. The bench also noted that the court has already expressed concern over the increasing trend of implicating relatives of the husband in many cases. The process of law would be abused if the allegations which raged during the matrimonial dispute were left unchecked.