LUCKNOW The Allahabad high court has held that a man calling his wife a “barren woman” during a quarrel over childlessness and exchange of abuses between them would not constitute cruelty under IPC Section 498-A.
The high court noted that the alleged remarks had to be viewed in the context of the matrimonial discord and the exchange of offensive language between both sides. The court also noted that the original complaint contained no allegation of a dowry demand, while such an allegation surfaced subsequently in the complainant’s statement. Justice Indrajeet Shukla passed the order on August 13 on the petition filed by the husband challenging a Lucknow court order that had summoned him on a complaint alleging cruelty, dowry demand and intentional insult.
“Mere taunts regarding childlessness, refusal to undergo medical examination, or verbal altercations arising from such domestic discord cumulatively without fulfilling essentials of cruelty envisaged under Section 498-A IPC, cannot by themselves constitute the offence of cruelty,” the court said. It held that the later statement could not be used to “fill the lacunas” in the original complaint.
