If Husband Goes To Jail, Marriage Will Surely End" MP HC Grants Anticipatory Bail To Man Over "Trivial" Charges Of Cruelty [Read Order]

Noting that if the applicant goes to jail, the marriage would almost surely come to an end "as thereafter there would be hardly any chances of compromise", the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to a man accused of cruelty and harassment for dowry by his wife.

Justice Atul Sreedharan was considering an application under Section 438 of the Cr.P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail to applicant who was apprehending his arrest in connection with a FIR under sections 294, 498-A and 34 IPC and sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

The Single Judge recorded that the applicant is the husband, whose wife stays separately and has filed the FIR on 19.6.2020. The allegations in the said FIR were that the applicant abuses the complainant, demands a gold chain of five tolas and is asking for the land which is in the name of her father to be transferred, locks the victim in the room and when she asks for medical aid, he does not provide her, besides allegations of unnatural sex and harassment for sex.

Looking to the facts and circumstances of the case, the Single Bench found that the allegations are "very trivial" and "can happen in any matrimonial home".

Commenting that "marriages would always experience some friction or the other", and noting that there are no signs of injuries on the body of the complainant as per the MLC, the Court expressed the opinion that if the applicant goes to jail, the marriage would almost surely come to an end as thereafter there would be hardly any chances of compromise.

"However, as the allegations reveal that they are trivial in nature, a window of compromise or settlement is always kept open", remarked the Single Bench, in granting pre-arrest bail.

The counsel for the applicant submitted that the FIR is pursuant to a complaint that he made before the Police Station, that his in-laws have taken away his wife and are not allowing her to come and join his society. The said complaint was made on 8.6.2020 i.e. on a date preceding the registration of the FIR. It was further argued that he has preferred an application under section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act for restitution of conjugal rights after the registration of the FIR as he could not do it before on account of the lock down due to COVID-19.

The counsel for the complainant objected to the grant of anticipatory bail in view of the allegations levelled against the applicant in the FIR which, according to him, are grave and serious.

Advocate Mr. Surendra Patel appeared for the applicant, Mr. Utkarsh Agrawal, as the Panel Lawyer for the respondent-State, Mr. Paritosh Trivedi, for the objector.

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