Complaints About Clothes Or Cooking Don’t Amount To ‘Grave Cruelty’ Under 498-A, Says Bombay HC

Last Updated:August 11, 2025, 15:23 IST

The court also pointed out investigative gaps that police had not questioned neighbours or neutral witnesses, relying solely on statements from the wife’s relatives

The bench concluded that putting the accused on trial would be 'an abuse of the process of law'.

The Bombay High Court has drawn a clear line between marital discord and criminal cruelty, holding that gripes about a wife’s attire or cooking skills cannot, by themselves, be treated as “grave cruelty" under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code.

Delivering the verdict on August 8, the Aurangabad bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Sanjay A Deshmukh quashed proceedings against a Pune man, his parents, and two sisters, accused of harassing his wife and concealing his mental illness before marriage.

The couple’s wedding took place in March 2022, the wife’s second marriage. Fourteen months later, the relationship collapsed, with the wife alleging verbal abuse, unreasonable demands for gifts, restrictions on her personal communications, and a Rs.15 lakh demand for purchasing a flat. She also claimed she was forced out of the matrimonial home in June 2023.

The wife filed the FIR for the offence punishable under Sections 498-A, 323, 504, 506 read Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

But the court found the wife’s version riddled with contradictions. One key piece of evidence turned the case: pre-marriage chats where the husband disclosed he was under treatment, undermining the claim that his health condition had been hidden. “When the marriage was performed despite this disclosure, it cannot be said she had no knowledge prior to the marriage," the bench noted.

On the allegation of cruelty, the judges said making remarks such as the wife not wearing “proper clothes" or being “unable to cook food properly" may cause friction but did not rise to the level of serious harassment envisioned by Section 498-A. Such conduct, the court remarked, “cannot be said to be acts of grave cruelty or harassment".

The court also pointed out investigative gaps that police had not questioned neighbours or neutral witnesses, relying solely on statements from the wife’s relatives. Allegations, it said, appeared to grow as the relationship deteriorated, making the complaint “omnibus" and exaggerated.

Even the alleged Rs 15 lakh demand seemed questionable. At the time of marriage, the family already owned a flat, a fact known to the wife, raising doubts over whether such a demand was genuinely made.

With little independent corroboration and much of the complaint based on subjective grievances, the bench concluded that putting the accused on trial would be “an abuse of the process of law." It quashed the case in its entirety, ending the criminal proceedings before the Aurangabad Chief Judicial Magistrate.

Salil Tiwari

Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public interests fr...Read More

Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public interests fr...

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August 11, 2025, 15:23 IST

News india Complaints About Clothes Or Cooking Don’t Amount To ‘Grave Cruelty’ Under 498-A, Says Bombay HC

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