The Supreme Court recently ruled in the case of Sunita Kumari v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others that criminal proceedings for the demand of dowry cannot be dismissed simply because a divorce petition is pending between the husband and wife. The decision was made by a division bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar, who were hearing an appeal from the wife contesting the Allahabad High Court’s decision to dismiss the criminal proceedings against her husband due to the wife’s AIDS diagnosis and the pending divorce petition.

The High Court had concluded that the wife’s allegations of dowry demand against her husband were unlikely due to the pending divorce and the wife’s AIDS diagnosis. However, the Supreme Court, upon reviewing the wife’s appeal against the High Court’s decision, deemed the reasoning behind dismissing the criminal proceedings as unjustified.

“Merely because the wife was suffering from the disease AIDS and/or divorce petition was pending, it cannot be said that the allegations of demand of dowry were highly/inherently improbable and the said proceedings can be said to be bogus proceedings. Therefore, the reasoning given by the High Court while quashing the criminal proceedings are not germane,” the Court said.

The Supreme Court also pointed out that the High Court exceeded its authority under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) when it dismissed the case. This is because, at the time the High Court made its decision, a chargesheet had already been filed against the accused and an investigation had established a plausible case against him.

“Once the charge sheet was filed after the investigation having been found prima facie case, it cannot be said that the prosecution was bogus. Under the circumstances, the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court quashing the criminal proceedings is unsustainable,” the Court observed.

The Supreme Court ordered for the criminal proceedings against the accused husband to be reinstated.