Cruel to ask wife to have sex with others as precondition for consummation of marriage, says Bombay HC

The Bombay high court said asking wife to have intercourse with other men and setting it as a condition to consummate the marriage amounted to cruelty to the woman, while upholding the conviction of a man, charged in 1993.

However, justice Sadhana Jadhav reduced the one-year sentence handed down to Tare Patil (name changed) by the trial court in 1994, taking into account the period already undergone by him in prison, pending trial which was around three months.

Why was the sentence reduced?
The court, while reducing the sentence, took into consideration that the appeal was coming up for hearing 20 years after the accused was charged of the offence. Further, the court also upheld the fine of Rs500 imposed on the accused by the trial court.

What was the prosecution's case?
As per the prosecution case, the woman and the accused knew each other before marriage and the woman was partially handicapped. When they got married the accused insisted that she have intercourse with three others. On February 6, 1993 when she was lying down outside her matrimonial house, the accused came there and insisted the same again. When she flatly refused, the accused forcibly made her drink some poisonous substance.
She raised a hue and cry and was rushed to the civil hospital in Solapur by her father-in-law and brother-in-law.

What was the trial court's '94 verdict?
Based on the wife's complaint, the accused was booked under sections 323, 328, 498 (A) (cruelty) and 504 of the Indian Penal Code. In 1994, the trial court acquitted him of other offences but held him guilty of cruelty under section 498 (A). When challenged, the high court noted: "The allegation itself would be mental harassment to the wife."