Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has quashed an FIR under IPC and a complaint under the Domestic Violence Act filed against an elderly couple as counterblasts after their NRI son divorced his wife.Quashing both the cases filed against the couple by their daughter-in-law, the HC said, “The petitioners are unfortunately caught in the cross-hairs in the bitter matrimonial fight between their son and the respondent No 2 (daughter-in-law)… I hold that the continuation of the proceedings impugned in these petitions would by themselves be an abuse of the process and would impel this court to quash all the proceedings arising out of the aforesaid impugned FIR/complaint.”In this case, the petitioners’ US-based son married the complainant in June 2021. Matrimonial disputes cropped up within a couple of months of cohabitation. The husband returned to the US and filed a divorce suit in a New Jersey court, which passed a decree of divorce in Feb 2023.Soon, the woman filed a criminal complaint with the Mahila police station (West) on Feb 28, 2023, alleging cruelty on the part of her husband and his parents. She alleged that she was not allowed to enter her matrimonial home on Dec 15, 2022, and was threatened that her husband would send divorce papers soon. In March 2023, she filed a complaint against her husband and in-laws in a metropolitan court under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.The NRI’s parents approached the HC seeking quashing of the FIR as well as the DV complaint. After the hearing, Justice D N Ray said, “A perusal of the complaint makes it clear that the complainant is interested only in a financial settlement… The further attempt at filing multiple complaints against the petitioners in a case where the main grievance of the complainant would really have been against the petitioners’ son, goes to demonstrate that the filing of the present complaint is nothing but an attempt to harass the petitioners.”The judge further stated, “I am of the opinion that the impugned complaints both under the DV Act as well as under the IPC are utterly improbable and are nothing but counterblasts to the civil action of divorce successfully initiated by the petitioners’ son against the respondent No 2, culminating in a decree of divorce in favour of the petitioners’ son.”
