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Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2018 INSC 820Decided 14 Sept 2018
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 73 of 2015
Chief Justice Dipak Misra · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud

Background

These connected petitions challenged directions the Supreme Court itself had earlier issued in Rajesh Sharma v. State of U.P. (2017), which required every Section 498-A IPC complaint (the anti-cruelty/dowry-harassment provision) to first be screened by a "Family Welfare Committee" before police could act or arrest. The petitioners argued these directions effectively diluted statutory protection for genuine victims of matrimonial cruelty and intruded into the legislature's domain.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that creating Family Welfare Committees, staffed by non-judicial members with power to vet complaints before police action, went beyond the judiciary's role and impermissibly altered the statutory scheme of the Criminal Procedure Code; a court cannot rewrite legislation through directions. It accordingly struck down the directions on Family Welfare Committees and related automatic-bail provisions from Rajesh Sharma, while retaining the direction that settlements between parties could still be given effect through quashing petitions under Section 482 CrPC (per the Gian Singh principles). It directed that protection against misuse of Section 498-A should instead come from existing safeguards, proper police training on arrest principles already laid down in Joginder Kumar, D.K. Basu, Lalita Kumari and Arnesh Kumar, rather than a judicially invented screening body.

Lesson Learnt

Courts cannot create new extra-statutory institutions (like a screening committee) that have the practical effect of delaying or diluting a citizen's statutory right to prompt police action on a criminal complaint; protections against misuse of a law must be found within the existing legal framework (bail, quashing powers, proper training), not through judicial additions to the statute.

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

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