Supreme Court grants decree of divorce under Article 142(1) of Constitution

In it's 73 page long judgement, in Rinku Baheti vs. Sandesh Sharda, Supreme Court's bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Pankaj Mithal observed:"The provisions in the criminal law are for the protection and empowerment of women but sometimes are used by certain women more for purposes that they are never meant for. In recent times, the invocation of Sections 498A, 376, 377, 506 of the IPC as a combined package in most of the complaints related to matrimonial disputes is a practice which has been condemned by this Court on several occasions." 

The Court allowed the application filed by the respondent-husband under Article 142(1) of the Constitution of India is allowed and the marriage between the petitioner and the respondent is dissolved on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage. Consequently, the criminal cases and the consequential proceedings pending against respondent-husband for offences punishable under Sections 354,376, 377, 420,498A,503, 506, 509 of the IPC and Sections 66 and 67 of the IT Act, 2000, filed by the petitioner are quashed.The criminal case and the proceedings for offences punishable under Sections 360, 427, 452, 454, and 457 of the IPC also stand quashed. 

It added: "In certain cases, the wife and her family tend to use a criminal complaint with all the above serious offences as a platform for negotiation and as a mechanism and a tool to get the husband and his family to comply with their demands, which are mostly monetary in nature." 

It underlined that "The women need to be careful about the fact that these strict provisions of law in their hands are beneficial legislations for their welfare and not means to chastise, threaten, domineer or extort from their husbands."

The judgement was delivered on December 19,2024. Prior to this on December 10, 2024, the Court had taken note of the tendency to implicate all the members of the husband's family when domestic disputes arise out of matrimonial discord by misusing provisions like Section 498-A IPC in Dara Lakshmi Narayana vs. State of Telangana. In May, 2024, the Court observed in Dolly Rani vs. Manish Kumar Chanchal that at Hindu Marriage is a sacred institution, not a social event for "song and dance" and "wining and dining".  The Court recalled it's earlier decisions in Achin Gupta vs. State of Haryana (2024) , Preeti Gupta vs. State of Jharkhand, (2010), Naveen Kohli vs. Neelu Kohli, (2006), Shakti vs. Anita (2023), Kiran Jyot Maini vs. Anish Pramod Patel, (2024), Vinny Paramvir Parmar vs. Paramvir Parmar (2011). 

The Court directed the respondent to pay the petitioner a sum of ₹ 12 crores only which shall be paid within one month. The litigation cost for the petitioner was ₹3 lakhs is to be paid along with the payment of permanent alimony. The petitioner was directed to vacate from the premises belonging to respondent’s father at Pune and Bhopal,within two months from the date of receipt of the amount of permanent alimony. The judgement was authored by Justice Nagarathna.