The Karnataka High Court recently held that a husband’s girlfriend cannot be accused of cruelty to and intimidating the wife under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The court made the observation while quashing criminal proceedings against the woman paramour of a man, who had been accused by his wife of the offence of cruelty under Section 85 of the BNS, Bar and Bench reported.
What was this case?
Justice M Nagaprasanna relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Dechamma IM @ Dechamma Koushik v State of Karnataka. The apex court had, in the case, held that a girlfriend of a married man cannot be considered his relative. The woman paramour of the married man had approached the Karanataka HC after a trial court took cognisance of a criminal case registered against her. The complaint had alleged offences including subjecting his wife to cruelty, assault or use of criminal force against her, criminal intimidation and intentional insult under the BNS.
“In the light of the bedrock of the law elucidated by the Apex Court, if the facts obtaining in the case at hand are observed, a paramour of the husband – accused No.1 cannot be termed as a relative of the husband,” the Supreme Court had noted then. In its order, the Karnataka HC held that a girlfriend or any woman the husband had relations with “could not be construed as a relative”, thus diminishing the grounds for a case under Section85 of the BNS. The court stated that even if a case was brought against the paramour under Section 498A of IPC, the material placed on record “should show that the ill treatment was meted out by the husband or a relative, which is connected with non-fulfilment of demand of dowry.”
