Bombay High Court: The petitioners under Section 482 CrPC prayed for quashing the First Information Report registered at the instance of the complainant-wife (of one of the petitioners) for the offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 323, 504, 506, 406 read with Section 34 of the Penal Code, 1860. The petitioners are parents-in-law and sister-in-law of the complainant and the husband and wife had filed consent terms before the Family Court at Bandra, Mumbai to settle their matrimonial dispute on the terms and conditions recorded therein.
The husband and wife had agreed for divorce by mutual consent under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Even the wife had agreed for quashing of the FIR against her in-laws. The Court noticed that it was matrimonial dispute between the husband and the wife, which led to the registration of the First Information Report. Further observing that as the dispute was already settled, no purpose would be served by continuing the criminal proceedings, as continuation thereof will cause undue harassment to the husband and wife and the case was fit to be quashed under Section 482.
The Court made another important observation as to the FIR placed before them filed by the wife wherein in her statement, she had stated about her sister-in-law who is handicapped and that her husband wanted her to look after his sister, but there was no allegation of commission of any offence by her. However, she was specifically shown as an accused by the investigating officer, the Court observed that it showed complete non-application of mind by the concerned officer. With regard to this, the Division Bench passed another order to the Director General of the Police, who shall issue necessary guidelines/circular to all police stations calling upon the Officers to apply their mind. [Hardik Vijay Shah v. State of Maharashtra, 2017 SCC OnLine Bom 312, dated 09.02.2017]