After couples resolve acrimony, High Court quashes dowry cases

The Delhi high court has quashed two FIRs in two different cases of subjecting women to cruelty for dowry after the couples settled their disputes and sought closure of the prosecution.

In the first case registered at the Vivek Vihar police station in East Delhi in 2006, an amicable settlement was reached between the wife and husband with the intervention of the Mediation Centre at the Karkardooma district court.

Thereafter, the couple started living together. They were also later blessed with a girl child. The police had charge-sheeted the accused in the case. Allowing the plea of the husband of the complainant and other accused in the case, the court quashed the FIR and the court proceedings, saying that “keeping in view… the settlement arrived at between the parties pursuant to which the complainant and the accused have started living together as husband and wife and are blessed with a girl child, I am of the considered opinion that this matter deserves to be given a quietus as continuance of proceedings arising out of the FIR in question would be an exercise in futility.”

In the second case lodged at the Khajuri Khas police station in North-east Delhi last year, the husband settled the dispute with the wife by paying her Rs 17 lakh.

The case was at the investigation stage. The wife had filed a case after divorcing the husband. 

“Keeping in view the settlement arrived at between the parties and the fact that the marriage has already been dissolved, therefore, no purpose would be served by directing the petitioners ( husband and other accused) to face the trial,”the court said quashing the FIR.