Dowry case takes U-turn with HC order

In an unusual order, while hearing a petition seeking quashing of a dowry harassment case, the Bombay High Court has asked a slum-dwelling couple in suburban Borivli if they wanted to return to their native place in Telangana and start a new life, since they have been living in deplorable conditions.

A division bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice Prakash Naik, however, refused to quash the criminal complaint lodged by the 23-year-old wife against her 26-year-old husband and in-laws, under charges of dowry harassment and other sections of the Indian Penal Code in 2016. The couple had moved the court saying they had amicably settled their issues and were staying together along with their two-year-old child, and thus wanted to quash the complaint.

The bench, after interviewing the couple in an open court, said, "We are sorry to say that what the constitutional freedom and guarantee envisages is a human existence. An existence for bare survival cannot be, therefore, taken to be meaningful and purposeful and at least as far as human beings are concerned."

The husband is a conservancy worker and does not earn a regular income. Both hail from Telangana and got married in 2014, and have a minor child. As per the complaint lodged with Borivli police, the woman alleged that she was mentally and physically harassed by her husband and in-laws during pregnancy and post delivery.

WHAT IS IT?

• The HC asked the Borivli couple if they wanted to return to their native place in Telangana, since they have been living in deplorable conditions.
   
• The woman alleged that she was mentally and physically harassed by her husband.