First, read this comment…
'If a married woman is asked to do household chores for the family, she cannot be compared with a servant. If the woman does not want to do household chores, then she should tell this thing before marriage, so that the husband and wife can reconsider marriage.
On 21 October 2022, a two-judge bench in the Bombay High Court said these things in a case. With this remark, the case registered under section 482 of CrPC was dismissed. Bhaskar will know in the explainer what is the meaning of this high court's comment on married women?
First, know the whole matter
A complaint was lodged by a woman at Bhagyanagar police station in the Nanded district of Maharashtra. In this complaint, three big allegations were made against the husband and in-laws.
1. After a month of marriage, the husband and his family members started treating the woman like a servant.
2. The husband and in-laws demanded Rs 4 lakh from the woman's father to buy four-wheeled vehicles. Expressing his inability to pay that much money, he started harassing the woman.
3. One day for the birth of a son, the in-laws took him to the doctor. The doctor said that the pregnancy period is not complete. After this, the mother-in-law and sister-in-law beat her up.
FIR in 4 sections based on woman's complaint
After the complaint of the woman, a case was registered under 4 sections of the IPC at Bhagyanagar police station.
Section 498A of IPC: When husband or in-laws cause cruelty to wife. Provision of 3 years imprisonment with a financial fine if proven guilty.
Section 323 of IPC: When intentional hurt is caused under a conspiracy. Imprisonment for one year on conviction with a fine up to Rs 1,000.
Section 504 of IPC: Intentional insult. Imprisonment of up to 2 years and a fine of fine for the guilty.
Section 506 of IPC: Criminal intimidation. Imprisonment for 2 years and fine to the guilty.
The matter reached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court before Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Rajesh Patil. The husband and in-laws were defended by lawyer Sagar Bhingare.
The arguments of the in-law's side during the cross-examination…
Even before this, the woman has been married once. The woman had also filed several complaints against her ex-husband and his family members. The woman's ex-husband was either acquitted of all these charges or the woman herself withdrew the complaints.
Advocate Bhingare said that after going through all these cases, it is found that the woman has a habit of making such allegations. The woman was married on December 12, 2019, and filed the report on September 9, 2020. It is hard to believe that such an incident happened within 5-6 months of marriage.
The lawyer said that on 28 February 2020, only after 2 months of marriage, the woman's husband had bought a four-wheeler vehicle for 17 lakhs. At this time he had not demanded any amount from the wife's father. In such a situation, the question of demanding Rs 4 lakh to buy a new car again after 7 months of buying the car does not arise.
Thus, the husband's lawyer demanded that the case be dismissed. At the same time, the wife's lawyer said that the investigation has been completed and the evidence is before the court, so the case cannot be dismissed.
Bombay High Court's decision in this matter
The High Court dismissed the woman's allegations in this case. In the 10-page decision, the High Court gave these 6 important observations…
1. It is written in the copy of the case that a month after the marriage, the woman was treated like a maid, but this allegation is swift or vague.
2. The woman has allegedly made allegations of mental and physical harassment, but these 2 words alone are not sufficient to prove her guilty under section 498A of the IPC. Unless there is an unambiguous mention of acts of mental and physical harassment.
3. There is no mention of the woman being pregnant anywhere in the copy of the case, nor has there been any evidence related to being pregnant.
4. The court also said that there is no evidence that why the woman left her in-laws' house and went to her husband's house.
5. Why did the woman file a case after two months of being harassed by her husband, this is also not mentioned in the copy of the case.
6. If a married woman is asked to do household chores for the family, she cannot be compared with a servant. If the woman does not want to do household chores, then she should tell this thing before marriage, so that the husband and wife can think about marriage again.
When the matter of domestic women's work reached the Supreme Court in 2020
According to the OECD report, Indian women do 352 minutes of domestic work every day. Accordingly, they work 577% more than men. At the same time, men do domestic work for only 52 minutes a day. Indian women do 40% more domestic work than South Africa and China.
A case reached the Supreme Court in December 2020. A 33-year-old woman had died in the accident. The insurance company underestimated the value of her life by calling the deceased woman a homemaker.
After this, when the family members of the woman reached the Supreme Court, the court said, 'The importance of the work of women doing domestic work is in no way less than that of their husband'.
Apart from this, in another case, the Supreme Court had asked insurance companies to pay compensation of Rs 9,000 per month for the death of a woman between 34 and 59 years.
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