Stranger can’t be booked under Section 498A of IPC that deals with offence of cruelty against woman only by her ‘relatives’: Karnataka HC

A stranger or neighbour cannot be drawn into the proceedings for offences under Section 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), said the High Court of Karnataka.

The court gave this finding while quashing a criminal case against Asha, 37, who is the neighbour of a man, whose wife had filed a complaint of dowry harassment and cruelty against him, his mother-in-law, and maternal uncle.

The complainant-wife had also included the name of the petitioner-woman, alleging that she was also instrumental in making her husband behave rudely with her. The police had filed the chargesheet against her along with the husband and his relatives.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna said that permitting further proceedings against this petitioner would become an abuse of the process of the law and result in miscarriage of justice as the Supreme Court had categorically held that it is not permissible to bring non-relatives in the proceedings initiated under Section 498A.

The High Court also referred to a judgment of the SC, which held that “reference to the word relative in Section 498A, IPC, would be limited only to blood relations or relations by marriage.”