In a scathing judgment, the Delhi High Court has come down heavily on a woman who dragged her late husband’s elderly parents back into domestic violence litigation years after moving out and even remarrying.
Justice Arun Monga, while hearing a petition by Usha Sharma and her husband, quashed all proceedings against them on August 29, 2025, observing that the woman’s actions amounted to an 'abuse of the process of law.'
Background
Usha Sharma and her husband had lost their only son, Apoorv, in December 2021. Apoorv had married Swati Sharma in 2011, and the couple had one child. Their marriage turned bitter, and Swati left the matrimonial home in 2017, alleging dowry harassment. In August 2021, she filed a domestic violence case against five family members, including her in-laws.
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The Mahila Court initially removed the in-laws from the case after a Protection Officer’s report noted they had been living separately since 2019 and never visited her. Swati did not object to their deletion at the time.
Court's Observations
Things changed a year later, when Swati quietly filed a criminal revision challenging their removal. Without even notifying the in-laws, a Sessions Court reinstated them as accused in November 2022, prompting fresh summons from the Mahila Court.
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Justice Monga pointed out that this revision was filed after more than 10 months, even though Swati had a legal remedy of appeal within 30 days.
"A revision so belated, particularly when a specific statutory remedy by way of appeal was available, was ex facie not maintainable," he remarked
He was also troubled that the in-laws were condemned unheard.
"Section 401(2) Cr.P.C. expressly prohibits any prejudicial order… unless the affected party is afforded an opportunity of being heard," the judge said, calling the Sessions Court’s order 'unsustainable in law.'
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Decision
Setting aside both the Sessions Court order and the subsequent summons, the High Court not only gave relief to the elderly couple but also imposed costs of ₹50,000 on Swati Sharma for what it termed "pure harassment dressed up in legal process."
In unusually candid words, Justice Monga noted,
"Dragging aged in-laws through endless litigation even after the death of their young son, and all while comfortably remarried, passes off as her idea of justice. To call the continuation of such proceedings unjust and untenable would be an understatement."
The ruling brings the drawn-out dispute to an end, freeing the grieving parents from a case they were never meant to fight.
Case Title: Smt. Usha Sharma & Another vs Swati Sharma
