Justice Jitendra Doshi held that such cases cannot be filed in respect of offences or incidents that take place after a competent court grants divorce and dissolves the marriage.
The Court explained that in Section 498A of IPC, the expression used for the accused is “the husband” and “relatives of the husband.”
This is reflective of the proposition that for levelling allegations under Section 498A of the IPC, the status of “the husband” or “relatives of the husband” must exist, the Court said.
“This expression does not include ‘former husband’ or ‘ex-husband’ or ‘relative of the former husband or ex-husband,'” the judgment stated.
The Court, however, also noted that the same provision states that a “woman” can file a Section 498A case, meaning that she need not necessarily be the “wife” at the time of filing the case.
“The legislature while using expression ‘the husband or relatives of the husband’ in section 498A of the IPC, used the word woman and not wife,” the Court said.
Therefore, the judge held that a complaint under Section 498A can be maintained even by a divorcee-wife, provided that the alleged incident of harassment and cruelty was meted out while the marriage existed.
“However, she cannot file complaint alleging offence under section 498-A putting allegation of an incident, which could have been taken place subsequent to the divorce. Once the competent Court passed the decree of divorce, the marital status of the husband and wife is snapped and the pre-requisite condition of section 498-A ‘being the husband’ or ‘relatives of the husband’ disappears,” the Court held.
Source: Barandbench
