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Janshruti (People's Voice) v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2025 INSC 536Decided 15 Apr 2025
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 315 of 2025 (Diary No. 2152/2025)
Justice Surya Kant · Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh

Background

An organisation named Janshruti (People's Voice) filed a writ petition asking the Supreme Court to frame gender-neutral guidelines for domestic violence and harassment complaints, and to declare Section 498A IPC (dealing with cruelty against a married woman by her husband or his relatives, now Section 84 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) unconstitutional, citing concerns about its misuse.

Decision Breakdown

The Court declined to entertain the petition or grant any relief. It held that courts only interfere with legislative policy in narrow situations (where a law lacks any reasonable basis, is driven by bad faith, has no rational connection to its purpose, or violates fundamental rights) and none of these applied here. The Court traced Section 498A's history to the 1983 amendment addressing the serious, entrenched problem of dowry-related cruelty against women, and held that occasional misuse of a provision is not, by itself, a ground to strike it down or dilute it; genuine misuse claims must be examined case-by-case by the appropriate court, not decided in the abstract under writ jurisdiction. The petition was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

The Supreme Court will not strike down a protective criminal law provision just because it can sometimes be misused: allegations of misuse must be raised and proven in the specific criminal case itself, not used as a basis to challenge the law's validity in the abstract.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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