Supreme Court, file photo
Digital Desk, New Delhi. The Supreme Court, while hearing a case on Friday, said that if a husband asks his wife to prepare an excel sheet to keep track of all the household expenses, it cannot be considered cruelty and criminal proceedings cannot be initiated on its basis.
During this, the Supreme Court said this while canceling the FIR lodged by the wife against the husband. The Supreme Court said that this may be the reality of Indian society where men often try to dominate and take control of the household finances, but it cannot be a ground for initiating criminal proceedings.
The case was heard by a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan. The bench said that the courts should be very careful while dealing with matrimonial complaints and should consider the practical realities while dealing with such cases, as many of these cases arise out of everyday trivial matters of marriage, which cannot in any way be categorized as cruelty.
These allegations were made against the husband
The bench said that the allegation that the husband forced the wife to prepare an excel sheet of all the expenses, even if accepted as true, does not fall under the definition of cruelty. The financial and economic clout of the accused, as alleged by him, cannot constitute a case of cruelty, especially when there is no concrete mental or physical harm caused.
The court said that this situation is the reality of the Indian society where the men of the houses often try to dominate and control the finances of the women, but the criminal trial cannot become a means or weapon to settle scores and vent out personal enmity.
The Supreme Court accepted the husband's argument
The top court accepted the arguments of lawyer Prabhjit Johar, appearing for the husband, who alleged that this was a misuse of law and no case was made out against his client. It said that a mere reading of the FIR shows that the allegations made by her are vague and general and she has not provided any evidence or specific information about any specific incident of harassment.
The bench said that courts should be careful while dealing with complaints and consider the practical realities while dealing with matrimonial matters, where the allegations should be investigated with more care and discretion to prevent miscarriage of justice and abuse of law. We have considered the allegations made by the complainant. In our opinion, they reflect the everyday minutiae of marriage and cannot in any way be classified as cruelty.