Excerpts From Bail Orders And Judgments

I compiled a very short list of excerpts of what the courts around the country are saying about 498A and the impact on right to liberty.

Before I go on, here is what the spokesperson for NCW has to say about amending 498A:
“The idea should be to see how the police system works, the concerned official out there should not lodge an FIR and arrest the groom and his side before investigating. These kind of shortcuts are mainly tainting the image of the prevailing law. The way uncles, aunts are also humiliated is not fair, we agree that they should not be booked until a full-proof investigation is carried out. Instead of amending the law we should try to improve our police system and investigating procedure,”

These excerpts below and in the accompanying pdf file are from Judis.nic.in. I attempted to find more from judgments from other courts, but it looks like the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court are the two courts whose officers appear to do a great job in making the bail orders and judgments available online. These excerpts are pretty funny and they throw some light upon the idiocy that is this law. Here are some gems:

• “The appellant has also filed a maintenance petition against her husband. What can she possibly get by prosecuting him as well as his family members? The appellant filed the criminal case under Section 498A etc. not only against her husband but also against her husband’s father, mother, brother, sister, etc. In exercise of our discretionary jurisdiction under Article 136, we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned Judgment of the High Court quashing the criminal case filed by the appellant. After all, the appellant will not get any benefit by sending her husband or his family members to jail. She is pursuing her maintenance case, and if she is so advised she can also file a suit for damages, which if filed will be decided on its own merits.”

-The Supreme Court Of India, Appeal (crl.) 188 of 2007, 12/02/2007

• “The sole purpose of a novel like story evolved by the informant and recited in her First Information Report is to take a revenge with him by getting him sent to jail and further placing him in sufferings with his eventual suspension. The Courts are to protect the valuable rights of not only a wife if she is victimized and maltreated with dowry demand but also a harassed husband who is also equal in the eyes of law and if a concocted attempt as the one in hand is made to place the husband in an awkward situation, certainly the Court must come to the rescue of such a husband in humiliation.”

-Allahabad HC, Writ Petition MB 528 of 2005, 10/01/2006

• “Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. can be resorted to, in order to secure the ends of justice; it can be used, in given circumstances, to quash criminal proceedings. Lately, a tendency has emerged to set the criminal law into motion, either to settle scores, or to seek quick fix solutions to essentially civil disputes. This has been deprecated by the Supreme Court, (G. Sagar Suri Vs. State of U.P. AIR 2000 SC 754; Indian Oil Corporation Vs. NEPC Ltd., 2006(6) SCC 736) which has held that in such cases, the Court should invoke its power and quash criminal proceedings.”

-Justice Ravindra Bhat , Delhi HC, CRL.M.(C) No.5264/2005, 30.03.2007

• “The criminal case against her in which she was accused was compounded by the petitioner on the basis of compromise. She is living with her husband. She wants to use criminal justice as a tool against the petitioners who are her sister-in-laws and mother-in-law. She wants to enjoy the company of the husband keeping other relatives on tenterhooks.“

-Delhi HC, Crl. M.C. No. 8188-90/2006, 28.03.2007

Here are the rest of these gems in the pdf: Excerpts From Bail Orders And Judgments

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