Fri Dec 13 06:03:50 UTC 2024: **Bombay High Court Rules Depriving Child of Mother’s Contact Amounts to Cruelty**
Mumbai, Maharashtra – The Bombay High Court has ruled that preventing a child from seeing their mother constitutes cruelty under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court refused to dismiss a case filed against the in-laws of a Jalna woman who has been separated from her four-year-old daughter.
Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rohit Joshi stated that despite a trial court order, the woman was kept away from her child. The court declared that keeping a four-year-old from her mother constitutes mental harassment, equivalent to cruelty, causing significant harm to the mother’s mental health. This behavior, the court added, is akin to cruelty under Section 498A of the IPC. The court noted that this mental harassment continues daily and is a wrongful act, refusing to dismiss the case as it deemed the matter worthy of court intervention.
The case was filed in 2022 in Jalna district against the woman’s father-in-law, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law, accusing them of cruelty, harassment, and criminal intimidation. The defense had sought dismissal of the case.
The complainant, married in 2019 and a mother since 2020, alleged that her husband and his family demanded money from her parents, physically abused her, and verbally harassed her. In May 2022, she was allegedly forced out of her marital home and prevented from taking her daughter. She subsequently petitioned a magistrate court for custody.
Despite a 2023 magistrate court order granting her custody, the order was not followed. The High Court noted that while the child remained with the father, the applicants (in-laws) aided in concealing the child’s location. The court emphasized that those who disregard court orders are not entitled to relief. The three accused denied the charges of cruelty and harassment, claiming they were falsely implicated.
First Piper 