CNN Central News & Networks / ITDC India ePress / ITDC News /Agencies/ Delhi: New Delhi: The Supreme Court, delivering an important ruling in a case linked to dowry harassment and a wife’s suicide, has said that calling a wife “stupid” or “useless” does not, by itself, constitute criminal cruelty or the offence of intimidation. According to the court, such language may reflect the husband’s temperament, but on that basis alone he cannot be held criminally responsible for his wife’s suicide.
A bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Manmohan quashed the FIR and related proceedings registered against the husband in a Maharashtra-linked case of dowry death and harassment. The wife died on June 11, 2023, after falling from the 22nd floor of a residential building in Toronto, Canada. In the case, her father had accused the husband and in-laws of demanding dowry and subjecting her to mental and physical harassment.
The Supreme Court found that the prosecution could not produce solid evidence establishing the necessary link between the alleged dowry demand and the wife’s death. According to the court, for an offence related to dowry death, it must be proved that shortly before the death the woman had faced harassment or cruelty in connection with a dowry demand.
The bench also said that allegations made in matrimonial disputes must be examined carefully. Relatives of the husband should not be dragged into a criminal case merely on the basis of general and vague allegations. There must be a specific incident against each accused and material to support it.
Expressing sympathy for the grief of the deceased woman’s family, the court said criminal responsibility cannot be assigned to anyone without sufficient evidence.
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