The Calcutta High Court has dismisses cruelty case filed by a wife against her husband under Section 498A of the IPC, alleging cruelty, three years after she left their matrimonial home. Although the wife had moved out of the husband’s house in 2020, she lodged a complaint accusing him of cruelty in 2023.
Justice Shampa (Dutt) Paul held: The allegations in both the cases arise out of the matrimonial dispute between the parties. It is further seen that since the year 2020, when she filed the first case, the complainant has left her matrimonial home and has now after almost three years initiated the present case on 13.04.2023. Accordingly in the interest of justice and to prevent abuse of process of law… the case is hereby quashed.
The current revisional application seeks the quashing of proceedings filed in 2023 under Sections 498A/323/307/34 of the IPC, which are pending before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Paschim Medinipur, on the grounds that this is the second FIR concerning the same allegation.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the petitioner is already undergoing trial in an earlier case based on the same allegations, filed by the private opposite party no. 2 on 04.06.2020 under Sections 498A/323/506/34 of the IPC, and the trial in that case has already begun.
Citing the Supreme Court case of Kapil Agarwal & Ors. vs. Sanjay Sharma & Ors., the Court noted that while multiple complaints based on the same set of facts are allowed, in this case, the complaints were filed three years apart, with the wife having left the matrimonial home three years earlier.
As a result, the case was quashed.