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Rupali Devi v. State of Uttar Pradesh and connected matters

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 486Decided 9 Apr 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 71 of 2012, Criminal Appeal No. 622 of 2019, Criminal Appeal No. 623 of 2019, Criminal Appeal No. 619 of 2019, Criminal Appeal No. 620 of 2019, Criminal Appeal No. 621 of 2019
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi · Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul

Background

A group of appeals raised a recurring question: if a wife is driven out of her matrimonial home due to cruelty and takes shelter with her parents in a different city, can she file a criminal complaint under Section 498A IPC (cruelty by husband/in-laws) in the courts of that city, even though no fresh act of cruelty occurred there? Lower courts had taken conflicting views on this point, and the matter was referred to a larger bench of the Supreme Court to settle the law.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the mental trauma and psychological distress caused by cruelty in the matrimonial home does not simply end when the wife leaves: it continues to affect her at the parental home where she has taken shelter. Since Section 179 of the CrPC allows a case to be tried wherever the "consequence" of an offence occurs, and continuing mental anguish is such a consequence, the courts at the place of the parental home also have jurisdiction to try the Section 498A complaint, even without any fresh overt act of cruelty happening there. All the connected appeals were disposed of in these terms.

Lesson Learnt

A woman who has to leave her matrimonial home due to cruelty does not have to travel back to that city to file or pursue a criminal complaint under Section 498A IPC: she can approach the courts near her parental home, where she has taken refuge, because the law recognises that the harm caused to her continues there too.

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

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