Supreme Court of India | Photo: PTI Supreme Court of India | Photo: PTI

The Supreme Court on Thursday raised serious concerns over the misuse of matrimonial laws. Insisting the provisions meant to protect womenhot646, should not be used as tools for harassment, intimidation or extortion for husbands.

The division bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and N. Koteshwar Singh cautioned that criminal laws are intended for women’s protection and empowerment, and not as means to threaten, dominate or extort from husbands. “The provisions in the criminal law are for the protection and empowerment of women but sometimes are used by certain women more for purposes that they are never meant for,” said the top court, as reported by The Indian Express.

In recent times, the court stressed, complaints in matrimonial disputes invoking Sections 498A (cruelty), 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offences) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) had been used excessively as a “package” to settle scores. The practice, as per the bench, has been condemned by the court on multiple occasions.

“The provisions in the criminal law are for the protection and empowerment of women but sometimes are used by certain women more for purposes that they are never meant for. In recent times, the invocation of Sections 498A, 376, 377, 506 of the IPC as a combined package in most of the complaints related to matrimonial disputes is a practice which has been condemned by this Court on several occasions,” the top court observed, as reported by Live Law.

The observations came in a case involving a brief and turbulent marriage that ended in a legal battle. After living with her husband for only three-four months, the wife filed a rape case against him, who is a US citizen. It led to his arrest and a month-long detention. The court found that the rape FIR was filed on the same day the wife was scheduled to appear before the Family Court for a divorce case filed by her husband.

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Writing for the bench, Justice Nagarathna said that the wife’s actions were contradictory. According to the court, the woman in question claimed to have been a dutiful wife who lived happily with her husband; on the other, she accused him of serious offenses such as cruelty, rape and cheating. “The wife has taken contradictory positions with respect to her intentions about her marriage,” the court observed, as reported by PTI.

The bench expressed concern about the tendency of some women and their families to use criminal complaints as bargaining tools in matrimonial disputes with an aim to pressure the husband and his family into meeting financial demands.

“In certain cases, the wife and her family tend to use a criminal complaint with all the above serious offences as a platform for negotiation and as a mechanism and a tool to get the husband and his family to comply with their demands, which are mostly monetary in nature,” the court said, sometimes this is done in a fit of rage, while at times, it is a “planned strategy”.

The court highlighted how the involvement of other parties, such as family members and legal advisors, in these cases often exacerbates the situation. These individuals may devise “crafty strategies” to manipulate the legal system for personal gain, urging women to adopt “arm-twisting tactics” for ulterior motives.

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The police, the court said, in some cases, rush to arrest the husband and his relatives, elderly parents and bedridden grandparents. It leads to unnecessary detentions. Trial courts sometimes refuse bail that further complicates matters, the court added.

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This creates a situation where minor disputes escalate into “ugly prodigious battles of ego and reputation”, with both sides airing personal grievances in public. Ultimately, it leads to the breakdown of relationships with no possibility of reconciliation or cohabitation.

The court’s warning echoes similar concerns raised by the same bench last week in the case of Dara Lakshmi Narayana vs. State of Telangana, where the court highlighted the misuse of Section 498A IPC.

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It emphasised, according to Live Law, “Sometimes, recourse is taken to invoke Section 498A of the IPC against the husband and his family in order to seek compliance with the unreasonable demands of a wife. Consequently, this Court has, time and againhot646, cautioned against prosecuting the husband and his family in the absence of a clear prima facie case against them.”