Telangana high court quashes dowry harassment case against NRI, elderly parents

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court has quashed criminal proceedings against an NRI and his elderly parents in a case of alleged dowry harassment and domestic violence filed by his estranged wife.

While disposing of the matter, Justice Juvvadi Sridevi referred to a 2024 Supreme Court ruling, which cautioned against implicating family members in matrimonial disputes without specific and substantiated allegations.

In this case, the woman from Naspur in Mancherial district accused her husband and in-laws of mental and physical harassment over dowry demands, shortly after their marriage in 2017. She alleged that her husband later moved to Malaysia and continued harassing her over the phone.

However, the court noted that no concrete evidence or specific allegations were made against the in-laws. It also took into account that the couple had not been living together for several years and that a family court in Warangal had already granted a divorce in 2021. The case was still pending before a magistrate in Mancherial.

The NRI’s counsel told the court that the woman had left the marital home soon after the wedding and never returned. The husband had first approached the Warangal family court seeking restitution of conjugal rights, which directed the woman to join him in 2019. When she failed to comply, he filed for divorce, which the court granted.

The counsel argued that the woman filed the criminal case later, suppressing these earlier court orders. Though a chargesheet was filed, no material evidence was found against the man or his parents. Continuing the legal proceedings, therefore, amounted to an abuse of the legal process, the court held.

Justice Sridevi, citing the lack of evidence and the earlier divorce ruling, dismissed the case against the man and his parents.