Karnataka High Court Halts Cruelty FIR Against Husband, Notes Similar Case Over Allegedly Restricting Wife's Beauty Parlour Visits Was Stayed

The Karnataka High Court on Friday (July 17) stayed the investigation and inquiry in a cruelty case registered against a husband, noting that the allegations in the FIR were a "translated version" of an earlier domestic violence complaint that had already been stayed by the Court.

A single-judge Bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the interim order in a petition filed by a BESCOM employee accused of offences under Sections 85 (cruelty by husband or relatives), 115(2), 351(2) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Section 498A of the IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

The Court noted that the marital relationship between the parties had broken down, leading to multiple proceedings initiated by the wife against the husband.

"The petitioner is the husband, the second respondent the wife. Floundering of relationship between the two, has resulted in the wife registering several crimes against the husband," the Court observed.

The petitioner and the complainant were married on April 14, 2011. Subsequently, the husband instituted divorce proceedings, which are presently at the stage of cross-examination.

According to the petitioner, the wife filed proceedings under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, on June 23, 2025, as a counterblast to the matrimonial litigation.

While hearing that matter, the petitioner had submitted that the principal allegation against him was that he prevented his wife from visiting a beauty parlour or getting her eyebrows done.

Referring to the earlier domestic violence proceedings, the Court recorded:

"The allegation of the wife in the domestic violence proceedings was that the petitioner stopped her from going to the beauty parlour and getting her eyebrows done or complaining that she was dark in complexion. That matter comes to be stayed at the hands of this Court as the allegations were on the face of it frivolous."

The Court noted that immediately after the stay order in the domestic violence case, Crime No. 110/2026 came to be registered against the husband.

Observing that the allegations in the FIR were substantially the same as those made in the domestic violence proceedings, the Court said:

"A perusal of the complaint against the petitioner in the subject crime is a translated version of the complaint made in the domestic violence case, as the allegations remain the same."

In light of the above, the Court stayed all investigation and inquiry in Crime No. 110/2026 insofar as the petitioner is concerned, till the next date of hearing.

Case Title: Hemanth Kumar B v. State of Karnataka

Case No: Crl P: 10091/2026

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