False criminal prosecution against husband 'cruelty': Allahabad HC

Lucknow: In a significant ruling, the Allahabad High Court has said that instituting a false criminal prosecution against your husband amounts to ‘cruelty’ and can be a valid ground for dissolution of the marriage.

A division bench comprising justices Saumitra Dayal Singh and Donadi Ramesh gave this ruling while dismissing a petition filed by the wife challenging the decree of divorce by a family court in Kanpur on the ground of cruelty.

In the instant case, the husband had filed a divorce suit four years after his marriage alleging that his wife had deserted him. During the pendency of the case, the wife lodged a criminal case against the appellant and his family members under the Dowry Prohibition Act.

The husband and his parents were arrested and later on enlarged on bail arising from that criminal prosecution lodged by the appellant. The criminal case filed by the wife was dismissed by the court for want of evidence later. The wife herself turned hostile in the matter.

The husband thereafter amended his divorce petition and included ‘cruelty’ as another ground for divorce. The family court granted the divorce.

In her petition in the High Court, the wife pleaded that she had turned hostile in a bid to revive her matrimonial relationship.

‘’It is an admitted fact that the respondent and his parents have been acquitted in the criminal case. At the stage of evidence, the appellant could not support the FIR allegations and she turned hostile. Seen in that light, a specific pleading of cruelty did exist,’’ the court said.

‘’The act of cruelty of causing arrest of the parents of the respondent on false allegation of criminal offence, was proven…. the respondent and his parents were acquitted by the trial court, but not before suffering arrest at the stage of investigation arising from false accusations made in the FIR,’’ it added.

‘’In the context of a Hindu marriage, one may continue to describe the parents of the spouse as parents-in-laws, at the same time for the act of cruelty committed, once arrest of parents of a spouse is caused on false allegations or allegations found to be false in the course of a criminal trial, no further or strict proof of cruelty may be prescribed or applied by Courts,’’ the bench said.