Bombay High Court: In a criminal application before the Division Bench of Vibha Kankanwadi and Vrushali V. Joshi*, JJ., the applicant (‘paramour’) sought the quashing of proceedings pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Chandrapur (‘Trial Court’) against her for the offence punishable under Section 498-A1 of the Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’). Applying the provision of Section 498-A, IPC, the Court found that, since the paramour was not a relative of the husband, the charge-sheet filed against her was illegal. Therefore, the Division Bench quashed the chargesheet at the instance of the paramour alone. The complainant (‘wife’) had lodged a complaint against the accused-husband, stating that he had tortured her because of his extra-marital affair with the applicant (‘paramour’). The FIR arising out of the complaint was initially registered against the husband alone, however, upon investigation, the cause of the harassment was found to be the disclosure of his affair with his paramour; that is why the paramour was added to the FIR and the impugned chargesheet was filed against her. The paramour contended that she was not a relative of the husband, and that she was a married woman herself, who was being falsely implicated in the cases, and therefore prayed for the quashing of chargesheet against her.
The Court referred to Section 498-A of IPC, that reads, “Whoever, being the husband or being the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.”
The Court applied the provision of Section 498-A and found that, since the paramour was not a relative of the husband in the instant case, the charge-sheet filed against her was illegal. Accordingly, the Court quashed and set aside the charge-sheet filed only at the instance of the paramour.
[Vaishali Janbaji Gawande v. State of Maharashtra, 2024 SCC OnLine Bom 2766, decided on 11-07-2024]
*Judgment pronounced by: Justice Vrushali V. Joshi
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the applicant: S.B. Raut, Advocate
For the non-applicant: M.K. Pathan, APP
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1. Corresponding Sections 85 and 86 of the Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
