NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that merely not speaking to a spouse for 13 days cannot, by itself, be treated as 'cruelty' under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, and set aside the conviction of a Coimbatore-based engineer.
A bench comprising Justices Maheshwari and Atul S Chandurkar delivered the verdict while allowing an appeal filed by Jayesh Khanna, who had challenged his conviction by a trial court and its subsequent confirmation by the Madras High Court.
The case relates to the death of Jayesh Khanna's wife, Sangeetha, who died by suicide at her parents' house on January 31, 2015. Jayesh Khanna was working as an engineer in Oman at the time.
According to the prosecution, Sangeetha had gone to her parents' home without informing her husband's family. It was alleged that her husband, upset over the decision, stopped speaking to her over the phone. Police subsequently registered a case alleging that the resulting mental distress had driven her to take the extreme step.
A case was registered against Jayesh Khanna and his family members under Sections 498A and 304B of the IPC. During the trial, the woman's parents levelled allegations of dowry harassment. However, the court found that those allegations were not proved and acquitted the husband's parents and other family members.
The trial court, however, held Jayesh Khanna guilty under Section 498A, observing that he had allegedly not spoken to his wife between January 18 and January 31, 2015. The court treated the alleged conduct as mental cruelty that could have contributed to her suicide. The Madras High Court later upheld the conviction.
Allowing the appeal, the Supreme Court observed that mental cruelty must be assessed in the context of the facts and circumstances of each case.
The bench said there could be no uniform standard to determine mental cruelty, as an act that appears insignificant to one person may cause serious emotional distress to another. However, the court noted that the allegation that the husband had not spoken to his wife for 13 days had not been established through cogent evidence.
"Marital disagreements are a normal part of married life. Such differences may sometimes result in a temporary breakdown in communication. In the absence of reliable evidence, the allegation that the husband did not speak to his wife for 13 days cannot, by itself, be construed as cruelty," the bench held.
The court consequently set aside the conviction and acquitted Jayesh Khanna.