Roping in husband’s kins for domestic violence cases must be stopped: HC

COURT ROUND-UP

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court recently took a note of the sudden rise in the number of cases wherein the relatives of the husband are roped in and arraigned as accused in domestic violence case. The HC accordingly said such an ‘unhealthy’ practise must be condemned.

A division bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice Vibha Kankanwadi voiced their concern over the rise in such cases saying, “It is true that now-a-days, unhealthy practice of roping the other relatives of the husband has emerged. We believe such a practice must be condemned and brought to an end. Such practices need to be deprecated by law.” The observation was made while hearing a writ petition seeking quashing of a First Information Report (FIR) and a chargesheet filed by the Aurangabad police. The writ petition was filed by the relatives of Parmeshwar Yenge (33) seeking quashing of the criminal case registered against them by his wife. The FIR registered at the behest of the wife claimed she was tortured and subjected to cruelty by her inlaws. She had also claimed that her husband along with his family and relatives had sought dowry from her family. Accordingly, she had arraigned the sisters, brothersin-laws, uncle and aunt of her husband along with his parents and himself. All the relatives were booked under charges of dowry, causing hurt by dangerous weapons, intentional insult and criminal intimidation. The relatives on the other hand, sought setting aside of the plaint against them.