The Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, while quashing a dowry harassment case pending in the lower court, said that Presenting minor disputes in the family as dowry harassment and filing a criminal case against the entire family is an abuse of the judicial process. The court was hearing a case in which an FIR was lodged at Maharajpura police station in Gwalior regarding dowry harassment and trial is pending in the lower court on the basis of FIR.The accused in the case had filed a petition in the High Court seeking quashing of the proceedings pending in the lower court. The petition was filed by Shailendra Kumar Mishra, an accused in the case and a resident of Shatabdipuram in Gwalior.In which it was said that the petitioner was married in the year 2013 to Nisha Mishra, a resident of Deendayal Nagar.On June 20, 2022, there was a dispute between husband and wife about bringing household items.The wife got aggressive and attacked the husband, due to the attack there were injuries on the husband's body.His medical examination was also done by the police.After the dispute, wife Nisha Mishra filed a dowry harassment complaint against her husband Shailendra Kumar Mishra, father-in-law Suresh Kumar, mother-in-law Prabhadevi and elder brother-in-law Brajmohan at Maharajpura police station.Not only this, on June 27, 2022, wife Nisha Mishra gave another application in the police station, in which it was alleged that Bhopal resident's father-in-law Munnalal Mishra and sister-in-law Rajni Mishra also thrashed her for dowry.She also alleged that brother-in-law Yogendra Mishra had molested her. The petitioner argued in the court that the investigating officer did not make any effort to find out the truth by conducting an impartial inquiry into the matter.Without knowing the truth of the matter, he submitted the charge sheet in the court, whereas there is no clear mention of dowry demand in the complaint lodged by the complainant. Not only this,The police registered a false case against brother-in-law Yogendra Mishra and sister-in-law Rajni Mishra working IB Guwahati, elder brother -in -law living in village Raigar Pura Bhind, uncle father-in-law living in Bhopal.Because the above people are family members but the fact is that the above people do not live in the joint family with the complainant. Justice Deepak Kumar Aggarwal, after listening to both the parties and perusing the documents on record, said that Presenting minor disputes in the family as dowry harassment and filing a criminal case against the entire family is an abuse of the judicial process. The court, observing that there was no clear evidence of dowry demand, ordered to quash the trial pending in the trial court.
