Wife Pursuing S.498A IPC Case Against Husband In India After Accepting Divorce Settlement In US Is 'Abuse Of Process': Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that a wife cannot be permitted to continue criminal proceedings under Section 498A IPC in India after having accepted a divorce decree and monetary settlement passed by a competent court in the United States.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna thus quashed an FIR registered against the husband and in-laws, observing that the complainant-wife having voluntarily participated in the divorce proceedings abroad and accepted the settlement amount, was estopped from reagitating the same matrimonial grievances through criminal prosecution in India.

“The very nature of a Property Settlement Agreement in matrimonial discord, reflects a settlement with intent of moving forward. It is significant to observe that parties in their settlement before the Court in USA had agreed that all their differences stand settled. Once, all the differences got settled, continuation of present FIR is nothing but an abuse of process of law,” the bench observed.

The parties were married in India and subsequently shifted to the United States, where matrimonial disputes arose. Divorce proceedings were initiated before a competent court in the US, in which both parties participated.

The foreign court granted a decree of divorce after recording a settlement between the parties, under which the wife received approx. Rs. 11 Lakhs towards full and final settlement of her claims, including alimony and other matrimonial entitlements.

After accepting the benefits of the settlement and the divorce decree, the wife did not withdraw her cruelty complaint in India. As a result, the impugned FIR was registered nearly a year after the divorce.

Holding such parallel proceedings to be impermissible, the Court observed that a litigant cannot “approbate and reprobate”—that is, accept the benefits flowing from a settlement on the one hand and simultaneously pursue criminal action on the same cause of action on the other.

It further noted that the allegations in the FIR were vague, omnibus and lacked specific particulars, especially insofar as they related to the husband's family members. It reiterated that general allegations, without specific instances of cruelty or entrustment, do not satisfy the ingredients of offences under Sections 498A or 406 IPC.

As such, the Court quashed the FIR and all consequential proceedings.

Appearance: Mr. Shashi Shanker, Advocate for Petitioners; Mr. Shoaib Haider, APP for the State with SI Dhananjay Gupta and ASI Anil Kumar, PS: Kirti Nagar. Mr. Vineet Agarwal, Adv. for R-2.

Case title: NS v. State

Case no.: CRL.M.C. 1896/2021

Click here to read order