Dowry Prohibition Act

Case BriefsHigh Courts

Gujarat High Court: Ilesh J. Vohra, J., heard a matter related to offences alleged under Sections 376 (2) (n), 377, 406, 498(A), 323, 294(b), 506(2) and 114 of the Penal Code, 1860 and under Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act which was filed seeking to quash and set aside the impugned FIR and consequential proceedings.

The wife in the FIR had alleged that her husband right from day one of their marriage indulged in sexual acts with her against her wishes and raped her. It was alleged that, her sister-in-law and her three daughters as well as another sister in law though residing outside the country or in other States in India, also harassed her on domestic issues and demanded dowry, as a result, the complainant came to her parental home at Ahmedabad.

The Court prima facie was of the view that it was a matrimonial dispute between the husband and wife and ingredients for the alleged offence were not made out qua the applicants. Even the allegations of dowry and harassment are also prima facie not established against the present applicants as the applicants are residing in their respective States and country since long considering the law laid down in Ravinder Singh v. Sukhbir Singh, (2013) 9 SCC 245 where it was held,

            “the inherent power of the court in dealing with an extraordinary situation is in the larger interest of administration of justice and for preventing manifest injustice being done. Thus, it is a judicial obligation on the court to undo a wrong in course of administration of justice and to prevent continuation of unnecessary judicial process. It may be so necessary to curb the menace of criminal prosecution as an instrument of operation of needless harassment. A person cannot be permitted to unleash vendetta to harass any person needlessly. Ex debito justitiae is inbuilt in the inherent power of the court and the whole idea is to do real, complete and substantial justice for which the courts exist. Thus, it becomes the paramount duty of the court to protect an apparently innocent person, not to be subjected to prosecution on the basis of wholly untenable complaint”.

The Court further opined that at the stage of investigation, the High Court cannot exercise its inherent jurisdiction to quash the proceedings unless it is found that, allegations do not disclose the commission of cognizable offence or the power of investigation is being exercised by the police mala fidely or where noninterference would result in miscarriage of justice as held in Jehan Singh v. Delhi Administration, (1974) 4 SCC 522. The Court granted interim relief making the matter returnable on 27-11-2020.[Steffi Waring v. State of Gujarat, 2020 SCC OnLine Guj 1531, decided on 09-10-2020]

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Case BriefsHigh Courts

Orissa High Court: A Division Bench of S.K. Mishra and A.K. Mishra, JJ. set aside a lower court’s decision of convicting the appellant based on circumstantial evidence.

The Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) found a dead body of a young woman which was severed into four pieces on the railway track. The trail of blood led to the house where the appellant was residing with his wife on rent. Upon investigation of the said rented house, the ASI found the house splattered with blood. He found one plastic mat covered in a pool of blood. The accused was not found in the house, although he was with the deceased the previous night. Considering the circumstances, the ASI lodged an FIR suspecting it to be a case of murder. Out of the 14 witnesses examined on behalf of the prosecution, three of them stated that they had heard the accused assaulting the deceased due to non-fulfilment of demand of dowry. Based on these statements and the circumstantial evidence, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, came to the findings that the accused and the deceased were residing in one house because of the trail mark of blood from the house of the accused to the railway track. Adding to it, doctors too confirmed the case to be of murder as the antemortem injury was inflicted by the sharp cutting weapon. The appellant was convicted and imprisoned for life under Sections 201, 302, and 498-A IPC, Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. 

The counsel for the appellant, Anima Kumari Dei, submitted that the entire judgment does not reveal that when and on which date the occurrence took place so as to put a nexus between the last seen of the deceased with the accused and the discovery of the dead body of the deceased since the FIR was lodged two days after the occurrence.

The Court held the following:

  • There is a considerable lapse of time between the time the accused and the deceased were last seen together and discovery of the dead body of the deceased, and therefore the last seen theory is not applicable in this case.
  • From the materials available on records, the chain of circumstances is not complete as to leave no reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused.
  • There is also no cogent evidence on records to show that there was any torture for the demand of dowry or causing the disappearance of evidence as no specific of such incident has been stated to by any of the witnesses.

The Court set aside the conviction recorded by the Additional Sessions Judge as it was based on circumstantial evidence available and did not form a complete chain unerringly pointing towards the guilt of the accused.[Gopal Mallik v. State of Orissa, 2019 SCC OnLine Ori 254, decided on 18-07-2019]

Case BriefsHigh Courts

Gujarat High Court:  The Single Judge Bench of Hon’ble Justice J.B Pardiawala, while hearing an application seeking to invoke the inherent powers of the Court, passed an order for quashing an FIR for the offences punishable under Sections 498A, 323, 504 along with Section 114 of the Penal Code and under Sections 3 and 5 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

The first informant got married to the original accused 1 in whose respect the whole complaint has been filed but he is not before the court, on 08-02-2015, after contacting each other on Facebook a social media platform, which according to the Hon’ble Judge is bound to fail due to the medium of contact between the two parties. The two parties started to have issues among themselves within a period of 2 months of their marriage.

The learned counsel for the first informant submitted that the FIR may be quashed as far as the applicants are concerned. The Hon’ble Court while concluding the judgment stated that the FIR needs to be quashed so far the applicants were concerned, but the investigation in that regard shall proceed in respect of the original accused 1 i.e. the husband. The parties did try to settle the matter earlier so they should once again try to explore that possibility. [Anitaben v. State of Gujarat, 2018 SCC OnLine Guj 94, order dated 24-01-2018]