No dowry case can be filed after divorce: SC

◗ The order comes after the Bombay high court asked the ministry to consider issuing a direction to media to stop using the word ‘ dalit’

The Supreme Court has held that the prosecution of a husband and his family members under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act was not sustainable when the complaint is filed by the wife long after their divorce.

Giving this ruling, a bench of Justices S. A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao concurred with the contention of the accused that prosecution under Section 498A IPC was clearly not tenable in view of the case of the complainant herself that there had been a divorce almost four years before filing of the FIR.

In this case, the wife filed an FIR against her husband, Mohammad Miyan, and his relatives alleging offences under Sections 498A, 323, 325, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3/ 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961. She herself stated in the complaint that they had got divorced almost four years before the filing of the FIR. As both the trial court and high court had refused to discharge the accused, they approached the Supreme Court.

Quashing the proceedings, the bench said: “In view of her own averment that she was divorced four years ago, we are of the view that

In an advisory to the media, the Union information and broadcasting ministry has asked them to refrain from using the word “dalit” and instead use Scheduled Caste to refer to the community. The order comes after the Bombay high court asked the ministry to consider issuing a direction to media to stop using the word dalit.

“Media should refrain from using the word dalit while referring to the members belongining to the Schedule Caste community in compliace with the directions of the Bombay High Court and the constitutional term Schedule Caste in english and its appropriate translation in other regional languages should alone be used for all official transaction, matters dealing, certificates etc., for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential orders issued under Article 341 of the Constitution of India,” the I& B ministry advisory to the electronic media said.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court had recently asked the ministry and the Press Council of India to issue directives to the media to abstain from using the word “dalit” in reports. Sources stated that the I& B ministry is unlikely to issue any advisory on its part and is expected ask the PCI to take a call on the issue. It is understood that the PCI advisory on the issue is expected within a month.

The Modi government had also recently issued an advisory in which the use of dalit was barred in official communication. In the March circular, the BJP government had asked all state and Central government departments to avoid the nomenclature “dalit” for citizens belonging to SC/ ST.