BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court said that every matrimonial discord, emotional incompatibility, or failure of conjugal expectations does not metamorphose into cruelty within the meaning of Section 498A of IPC.
Justice M Nagaprasanna made these observations while allowing the petition filed in 2024 by the husband, a police officer, questioning the criminal proceedings initiated by his wife, who is also a police officer, for non-consummation of marriage even four months after the marriage. The marriage of a 29-year-old police officer residing in Mysuru took place in November 2023 with a 27-year-old police officer residing in Bengaluru. Their relationship turned sour within four months on the ground that the marriage was not consummated. Long after, a complaint was registered by the wife against him, the counsel argued.
Citing the chargesheet, the wife’s counsel argued that the very act of the husband marrying her would become cruelty, as he has not consummated the marriage till date and keeps saying that let us be friends since he has a relationship with another woman. The husband is also harassing his wife by forcing her to take a loan and buy a site, and later they can think of having children, the counsel argued.
However, in this case, the accusation is nothing more than the alleged non-consummation of the marriage. The allegation appears to have been ingeniously woven into the narrative only. Therefore, the criminal law cannot be permitted to be invoked to convert matrimonial incompatibility into a prosecution for cruelty, the court added. It added that husband is a serving police officer and the very registration of the crime has unleashed inquiry against him, casting a shadow over his service career and professional reputation.