‘Cruelty under section 498A of IPC not applicable to live-in relationships’

KOCHI: A man or his relatives cannot be held guilty for cruelty towards a woman under section 498A of the IPC if there was only a live-in relationship and no solemnisation of marriage, the Kerala High Court has held.

Section 498A of the IPC provides the punishment for the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman who subjects her to cruelty.

The ruling by the Justice Sophy Thomas came while setting aside the conviction and sentence, over 20 years ago, of a man and his brother for the offences under section 498A and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC.

They were convicted and sentenced after the man’s live-in partner died by suicide by self-immolation in 1997, few months after they started living together.

The High Court said that the trial and appellate courts “went wrong in finding the revision petitioners (the man and his family) guilty under section 498A and sentencing them for the offence.”