The Kerala High Court simply these days observed that punishments referring to cruelty to a married woman, beneath Indian Penal Code (IPC) half 498A, can’t be utilized to or invoked by girls in live-in relationships.
The courtroom’s comment obtained right here as a result of it was ruling on the conviction and sentence that was imposed on an individual and his brother beneath IPC sections 498A and 306 (abetment of suicide) for the demise of a girl in 1997. (File)
Justice Sophy Thomas acknowledged that for a girl to hunt redressal beneath Section 498A, she have to be married to an individual who was accused of cruelty or to an individual whose family members had been accused of cruelty.
As quoted by Bar and Bench, Justice Thomas acknowledged, “When there is some form of marriage either religious or customary which has the colour of a legal marriage, then also, the woman can seek protection under Section 498A of IPC though later, for some reason … that marriage is found to be invalid in the eye of law. But, when there was no solemnisation of marriage at all, and only live in relationship on the basis of a marriage agreement, then the woman cannot seek shelter under Section 498A of IPC, saying that they were holding out to the society as man and wife by their long cohabitation,”
The courtroom’s comment obtained right here as a result of it was ruling on the conviction and sentence that was imposed on an individual and his family beneath IPC sections 498A and 306 (abetment of suicide) for the demise of a girl in 1997.
The woman died by setting herself on hearth allegedly on account of cruelty and harassment confronted by her after eloping with the accused man, Bar and Bench reported.
A intervals courtroom in 1998 convicted and sentenced the individual alongside collectively together with his dad and mother and brother because the woman died by suicide plenty of months after the couple began residing collectively.
The accused challenged the choice in 2000 and an appellate courtroom partly allowed appeals that the individual and his family filed. However, the individual moreover filed an attraction inside the Kerala High Court so that they might very effectively be “honourably acquitted” inside the case, Bar and Bench mentioned.
On October 12 this yr, the extreme courtroom allowed the plea and overturned the findings of guilt.
The courtroom moreover well-known that the couple wasn’t legally married and had been residing collectively on the thought of a “marriage agreement” which didn’t have any approved legitimacy. It acknowledged that subsequently the session courtroom’s findings had been fallacious as a result of the couple wasn’t married.
The High Court acknowledged, “In the case on hand, since the marriage between the 1st revision petitioner and deceased was not solemnized, and they started living together on the basis of a marriage agreement, which has no legal sanctity in the eye of the law, they have to be treated as persons in live-in-relation, and they were not husband and wife, in order to attract an offence punishable under Section 498A of IPC.”
The conviction of the accused beneath suicide abetment was moreover dismissed as a result of the courtroom well-known that the woman didn’t diploma any allegations in direction of the individual or his family in her dying declaration, Bar and Bench acknowledged.
The accused’s dad and mother handed away whereas the case was pending. The courtroom moreover observed that the prices in direction of the dad and mother stood abated.
KP Balagopal represented the revision petitioners, whereas Public Prosecutor Nima Jacob represented the state.
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
