The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that a woman, who fled the of cruelty of her marital home, can file a case of dowry harassment under Section 498 IPC against her husband and in-laws at the place where she is currently sheltered.
In a judgment further expanding the jurisdiction of courts to provide relief to victims of dowry harassment, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi relaxed the rigours of the Code of Criminal Prpcedure (CrPC). Section 177 of the Code mandates that criminal cases can be filed and tried only in courts within whose jurisdiction the crime occurred.
The judgment comes on a reference made by the Supreme Court in January 2014 on the question “whether a case of cruelty on account of dowry harassment punishable under Section 498A of the IPC can be registered, investigated and punished in a jurisdiction different from the one from which the aggrieved spouse has been forced out on account of such harassment.”
The appeal was by Rupali Devi whose efforts to file a dowry harassment from her parents’ place of residence, where she had fled to, was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court.
The High Court had taken the view that cruelty punishable under Section 498A of the IPC was not a “continuing offence”, nor can it be investigated or punished in a jurisdiction outside the one in which the matrimonial house of the victim is situated.
With this judgment, the apex court has established that cruelty under Section 498A is a continuing offence, considering the facts and circumstances of each case.