NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has recently ruled that the mere demand for dowry does not constitute an offence under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 while observing that vague allegations of intimidation do not amount to harassment under the law.
Justice Amit Mahajan made these remarks while quashing an FIR filed by a woman against her husband’s relatives. The case, registered in 2019, named the husband, his parents, and other relatives as accused.
The relatives approached the high court seeking the quashing of the FIR, arguing that they were not immediate family members, did not live with the complainant woman, and had no apparent reason to demand dowry from her.
The high court found merit in their plea, noting that the allegations made against them were vague and lacked supporting material.
“While an FIR is not expected to be an encyclopaedia, the complainant has detailed multiple facts in her complaint. Yet, there is no substantive material linking the petitioners to the alleged incident,” the high court observed.
The court order highlighted that the petitioner relatives were implicated in the matter without any concrete evidence to support their involvement and that the allegations appeared exaggerated.
The high court also noted that while the wife claimed she was “intimidated” with threats of breaking the marriage upon refusal of dowry demands, these claims did not meet the legal threshold for cruelty under Section 498A of IPC.
“Mere demand of dowry does not amount to an offence under Section 498A IPC, and in the present case, a simple allegation of intimidation cannot be classified as harassment, especially when the petitioners justified it as an investment,” the court stated.
The court further emphasised that the relatives were not the aggressors, given that they never resided with the complainant. “It appears that they have been implicated due to a common tendency of litigants to drag the husband and all his relatives into matrimonial disputes,” it added.