"Even grandparents are implicated": Bombay High Court sounds alarm over misuse of Section 498A IPC

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday expressed concern over the misuse of Section 498A (cruelty to wife by husband and relatives) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). .The Division Bench comprising Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Neela Gokhale expressed sympathies for the victims for marital cruelty but also noted that Section 498A was being misused. Even grandparents and bedridden individuals were being implicated in such cases, the Court observed."We do not appreciate this," the Bench remarked.The Court added that thousands of cases could be resolved if the offence under Section 498A, IPC was made compoundable..The Court's remarks came in a petition for quashing a Section 498A case following a settlement between the wife and her husband, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. After quashing the case, the Bench in 2022 had recommended that the Central government make the offence under Section 498A IPC compoundable. Following this, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development filed an affidavit, expressing that it would not be in the interest of women to make Section 498A IPC a compoundable offence. Subsequently, the State passed a bill in both houses of the legislative assembly to make the offence compoundable. This bill was sent to the President for assent, who in turn sought comments from the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The Ministry then requested clarifications from the State..In January this year, Additional Solicitor General Devang Vyas (representing the Centre) informed the High Court that the State's bill could not be processed for want of requisite data.The Court was told that the Central government had written to the Maharashtra government on January 19, 2024, stating that a response from the State on the matter was still awaited. The Court's attention was also drawn to another letter dated December 12, 2022 which indicated that the Centre had suggested the withdrawal of the State bill so that it could be further refined.The High Court added that the Union's earlier affidavit did not mention these letters and failed to clarify that the bill could not be processed due to a lack of data from the State. Rather, the affidavit indicated that the Ministry's opposition to making Section 498A compoundable was on the ground that it was not in the interest of women. The Court remarked that this juxtaposition of the affidavit and correspondence created a misleading picture.The Bench had then directed the State to take steps to submit a fresh bill, incorporating additional data and addressing the anomalies pointed out by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This exercise is yet to be done.Meanwhile, the IPC has now been replaced by the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and a provision corresponding to Section 498A of the IPC has been incorporated in Section 85 of the BNS. Section 85 is not a compoundable offence under Section 359 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Surakhsa Sanhita (BNSS), which has replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure.