Reportedly the bombay high court has held that not allowing a child to meet his mother is equivalent to 'cruelty' under the indian Penal Code and refused to quash the FIR lodged against the in-laws of a woman living in Jalna. A bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rohit Joshi in aurangabad said in its december 11 verdict that the woman's four-year-old daughter is being kept away from her despite the lower court's order.
Meanwhile the court said, "Keeping a four-year-old little girl away from her mother is also equivalent to mental harassment, which is akin to cruelty as it will certainly cause serious damage to the mental health of the mother." The high court said that such behavior of the in-laws is akin to 'cruelty' as defined under Section 498-A of the indian Penal Code. The bench said, "Mental harassment continues day by day till date. This is a wrongdoing.'' It said the FIR will not be quashed as it is not a fit case for court intervention. The woman's father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law had sought quashing of the 2022 FIR lodged against them in Maharashtra's Jalna district for alleged cruelty, harassment and criminal intimidation.
According to the complainant, she got married in 2019 and had a daughter in 2020. The husband and his family members started demanding money from her parents and physically tortured and abused her. In May 2022, the woman was allegedly thrown out of the house by her in-laws and was not allowed to take her daughter with her. After this, she filed an application in the magistrate court for the 'custody' of her daughter.
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