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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court has recently said that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code is not applicable to a fiancée or girlfriend.

“As noted earlier in present case even as per the allegation of the Respondent No.2, the Petitioner was the fiancee/girl-friend of the husband of the Respondent No.2 and therefore, the provisions of Section 498-A of IPC cannot be made applicable to her,” the order states.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Neela Gokhale was hearing a petition filed by a woman booked under Sections 498-A, 504, 506 read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Despite issuing notices to the informant (wife), she did not appear before the court, leading the bench to proceed in her absence.

The wife had filed a complaint after discovering that the petitioner was the fiancée/girlfriend of her husband, Sachin M. Chabukswar, the principal accused in the crime.

In October 2017, a person named Kiran called the informant (wife) and informed her that her husband was having an illicit relationship with the petitioner.

The wife checked her husband's phone and found a photograph of the petitioner. When she confronted her husband, he avoided answering.

Later, on March 28, 2019, while under the influence of alcohol, the husband gave gold bangles and a necklace to the petitioner. When the wife opposed this, the husband attempted to strangle her by pressing her neck.

While referring to a Supreme Court’s judgement the bench observed that, “By no stretch of imagination a girl friend or even a concubine in an etymological sense would be a `relative'. The word `relative' brings within its purview a status. Such a status must be conferred either by blood or marriage or adoption. If no marriage has taken place, then the question of one being relative of another would not arise,”

Therefore, the bench proceeded to quash the FIR against the petitioner.