Dowry case: HC grants US-based man liberty to prosecute wife

Bengaluru: Citing gross abuse of the process of law, the high court has quashed a dowry harassment and cruelty case brought by a Bengaluru woman against her US-based husband.
Quashing the FIR registered by Basavanagudi women police and the chargesheet filed before the city’s 37th additional chief metropolitan magistrate against the husband, Justice M Nagaprasanna has granted liberty to him to prosecute his wife for “malicious prosecution”.The couple married in May 2020. After about two months, the husband went to the US as his H1B visa was to expire soon.
He claimed that in Jan 2021, his wife left her matrimonial home to live in a relative’s house. Though the wife got four appointments till May 2021, she failed to attend the visa office to complete the formalities. In Sep, 2021, she was granted a visa in the 5th attempt. As the relationship between the couple turned incorrigible, the husband moved the family court in Bengaluru in Dec 2021, seeking divorce and also filed a police complaint against his wife.
In Feb 2022, the wife too filed a complaint against her husband for offences punishable under the Dowry Prohibition Act. Police filed a chargesheet against him and the magistrate court took cognizance of the same in June, 2022.
The wife argued that her husband suffered from a sexually transmitted disease and didn't intend to take her to the US and had blocked all channels of communication. She stated that though her husband earned more than Rs 2 crore annually, he didn’t want to part with the same on settlement.
Challenging the proceedings, the husband claimed that she had left no stone unturned in painting him black by getting him medically tested, including a test for human papillomavirus infection, a sexually transmitted disease, which all went in vain. According to him, she only wanted his money and demanded Rs 3 crore after all conciliation efforts failed.
‘Gross misuse of law’
Justice Nagaprasanna noted that the wife was given 614 grams of silver and 160 grams of gold as per tradition of ‘streedhana’ and the statements of her mother and brother as well as chargesheet materials did not indicate any demand for dowry made by the husband or any cruelty inflicted upon her.
The judge pointed out that a mail communication in Dec 2021 showed that the husband had sought confirmation regarding her travel to the US and therefore, it was clearly a bogey projected by her by saying he was not interested in taking her to the US. “The unmistakable conclusion is that the complainant, in gross misuse and abuse of law, has set the criminal law into motion” the judge said.
“Such frivolous cases registered by the wife have taken enormous judicial time, be it before the concerned court or before this court, and has led to enormous civil unrest, destruction of harmony and happiness in society. It may not be that these would be the facts in every given case. The court is only concerned about frivolous and vexatious litigations clogging the criminal justice delivery system, where genuine cases lie in the cold storage,” he said.
“If the facts narrated herein above are noticed and as observed, the complainant has, in gross misuse and abuse of the process of the law, has set the criminal law into motion. Therefore, it becomes a fit case where the husband must be given the liberty to initiate proceedings for malicious prosecution or initiate proceedings under Section 211 of the IPC. Liberty is thus reserved to the husband, for such action to be initiated in accordance with law, if he so desires,” the judge observed while quashing the proceedings against the husband.