The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against a woman accused in a matrimonial dispute, holding that allegations of making telephone calls from abroad and allegedly influencing her family members were insufficient to attract criminal liability under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The Court found no specific allegations showing her direct involvement in the alleged acts of cruelty or dowry harassment.
Background of the Case
The petitioner, the sister-in-law of the complainant, approached the High Court seeking to quash an FIR registered in Crime No. 377/2024 at Subramanyapura Police Station, Bengaluru. She had been booked under Sections 498A, 312, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, along with Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.
According to the complaint, the complainant married Accused No. 1 in July 2022 and later alleged that she was subjected to dowry-related harassment and cruelty by her husband and his family members. The petitioner, who had been residing in Luxembourg since her own marriage in 2017, was accused of telephoning the complainant's in-laws and allegedly encouraging them to demand dowry and mistreat the complainant.
The petitioner contended that she had been living abroad long before the marriage in question and had been unnecessarily implicated despite having no direct role in the matrimonial dispute.
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Court's Observations
Justice M. Nagaprasanna examined the complaint and noted that the only allegation against the petitioner was that she allegedly made telephone calls from Luxembourg and spoke to the complainant's in-laws. Apart from these assertions, the complaint did not attribute any specific overt act to her.
The Court observed:
"Instigation that too, by way of telephonic conversation would not mean that it would become an ingredient of Section 498A of the IPC."
Referring to the Supreme Court's decisions in Kahkashan Kausar v. State of Bihar, Maram Nirmala v. State of Telangana and Dara Lakshmi Narayana v. State of Telangana, the Court reiterated that relatives of a spouse cannot be subjected to criminal prosecution on the basis of vague or omnibus allegations without specific instances showing their involvement.
The Bench noted that criminal law should not be permitted to continue against distant relatives when the complaint fails to disclose a prima facie case against them.
Findings on Other Charges
The High Court also examined the allegations under Sections 312, 504 and 506 IPC.
Relying on the Supreme Court's ruling in Mohammad Wajid v. State of Uttar Pradesh, the Court held that the complaint did not disclose the essential ingredients required to establish these offences against the petitioner. It found no material indicating that the petitioner had committed acts amounting to criminal intimidation, intentional insult likely to provoke breach of peace, or any act connected with the allegation under Section 312 IPC.
Rejecting the complainant's contention that repeated telephone calls from Luxembourg amounted to criminal conduct, the Court observed:
"To accept such a contention in its unqualified breadth would be to dangerously widen the dragnet of criminal law, so much so that every telephonic communication by an in-law to a daughter-in-law could be projected as criminal culpability."
The Court held that even if the allegations were accepted at face value, they did not disclose any cognizable offence against the petitioner.
Decision
Allowing the criminal petition, the Karnataka High Court quashed Crime No. 377/2024 insofar as it related to the petitioner.
The Court held that permitting the investigation and criminal proceedings to continue against the sister-in-law, in the absence of specific allegations establishing the ingredients of the alleged offences, would amount to an abuse of the process of law.
Case Details
Case Title: Mrs. V. N. v. State of Karnataka & Anr.
Case Number: Criminal Petition No. 10716 of 2024
Judge: Justice M. Nagaprasanna
Decision Date: 25 June 2026
