In a significant ruling, the High Court of Gujarat noted that women sometimes use pressure tactics and accuse their husbands and in-laws of dowry-related offenses to escalate the severity of charges when alleging domestic violence and cruelty.
Regarding allegations of domestic violence, the court added that both the Supreme Court and the High Court have observed in numerous cases a troubling trend of exaggerated claims, often involving every relative of the husband.
“If one of them happens to be of a higher status or vulnerable standing, he or she becomes an easy prey for better bargaining & blackmailing,” the Court said.
The accused approached the High Court, seeking to have the FIR quashed on the grounds that the charges were false and frivolous. The Court observed that the marriage occurred in January 2018, and the wife left her matrimonial home in June 2019 to file the FIR and the domestic violence case. Although she later consented to the quashing of the FIR and returned to live with her husband, she voluntarily left her matrimonial home again to return to her parental house.
The High Court found that the allegations in the FIR were lacked specific instances of mental and physical cruelty.
The High Court said, “It seems that it is a domestic dispute between the husband & wife, wherein as usual, all the family members have been roped in as accused persons.”
“It is required to be noted that in many cases, at the time of invoking Sections 498A, 323, etc., of the IPC, Sections 3 & 7 of the Dowry Prohibition Act are also invoked just to make the offence graver, which is a pressure tactic adopted by the wife,” it noted.
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