Several laws and provisions have been enacted during the last two or three decades to address the concerns of liberty, dignity and equal respect for women based upon the community's perception that women suffer violence or are deprived of their constitutional rights due to several social and cultural factors. A series of debates and persuasions have led to these enactments. The insertion of Section 498A IPC is one such step and it penalizes offensive conduct of the husband and his relatives towards the married woman. The provision together with allied provisions in Cr. P.C. are so designed as to impart an element of deterrence. In course of time, a spate of reports of misuse of the section by means of false/exaggerated allegations and implication of several relatives of the husband have been coming in. Though there are widespread complaints and even the judiciary has taken cognizance of large scale misuse, but it is still on the statute book to deal with the cases of cruelty in matrimonial cases. Present paper discusses meaning of cruelty through judicial interventions and tries to examine its relevance in its maintenance on the statute book.
Judicial, cruelty, matrimonial statute, IPC, circumstances
