Supreme Court: Defining the scope and ambit of the term ‘mental cruelty’ under Section 498A of IPC, the Court held that a man permitting his first wife to live in the house of second wife, due to which the second wife has allegedly committed suicide, does not amount to mental cruelty. The Court, acquitting the appellant of charges under the said provision, held that where the acts of the accused were neither of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide nor as to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman, the man cannot be said to have mentally tortured the woman to an unbearable extent. In the present case, the High Court of Gujarat held that the appellant had caused mental cruelty on account of the letter written by the deceased to the Police Station before committing suicide. However, the fact mentioned in the letter that the deceased was subjected to financial exploitation and starving and mental cruelty by the appellant was denied by the deceased’s mother during cross examination before the 2-judge bench of this Court consisting of Hon’ble A.K. Patnaik and Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, JJ which resulted into the acquittal of the appellant. [Kantilal Martaji Pandor V. State of Gujarat, CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1567 of 2007, decided on July 25, 2013]
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 06:25:08 +0000
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