The Court quashed the wife’s complaint, saying that the allegations were vague.
The Supreme Court recently dismissed a domestic violence complaint filed by a woman in Jammu after her mutual divorce attempt with her husband failed.
Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran deemed the allegations vague and general, calling the complaint an “abuse of the legal process.”
The Court was considering a Special Leave Petition filed by the husband challenging a 2023 Jammu magistrate’s order that declined to dismiss his estranged wife’s complaint.
The couple married in April 2018 under Hindu rites but later faced disputes. They jointly filed for mutual consent divorce on October 9, 2019, but the wife withdrew the petition on January 25, 2020.
Just days later, on February 6, 2020, the wife filed a domestic violence complaint under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The husband contested its validity, arguing that all alleged incidents occurred before October 2019, while their mutual divorce petition was still pending.
In October 2023, the magistrate dismissed his objection and scheduled the case for evidence, prompting the husband to seek relief from the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court observed that the wife’s claims of being thrown out and subjected to torture were vague and pertained to a time before the couple mutually decided to separate.
“The allegations which have been made such as that she has been thrown out of the house and being tortured, etc. are not only vague and generalized but they all precede the date i.e. on 09.10.2019 on which joint application for Mutual Divorce was filed,” the Court said in its order.
Considering the sequence of events and the complaint’s content, the Court ruled that the proceedings were being misused.
“Considering the nature of the case and the allegations made in the complaint and the sequence of events…the entire complaint seems to be nothing but an abuse of the process of law,” the order stated.
Accordingly, the Court overturned the magistrate’s 2023 order and dismissed the domestic violence case against the husband. The wife, despite receiving notice, failed to appear before the Supreme Court.