Avoid frivolous anti-dowry cases, HC tells trail judges

New Delhi, March 13: The Delhi High Court today gave a word of advice to trial judges to avoid frivolous anti-dowry cases in which the criminal justice system is used as a "tool" to settle personal scores. "The trial court must take into account the entirety of the case, all documents which are brought to its notice and thereafter decide whether there was a case made out or the court was being used as a
tool," Justice S N Dhingra said.

Detailing its role in such cases, the Bench held that "where charges are framed by the lower court without considering the material and charges amount to gross misuse of criminal justice system and the trial is an abuse, it becomes the duty of the High Court to intervene". The court was hearing a plea by one Sangeeta Kalra to quash a criminal complaint filed by her father in June 1999, accusing her
husband and in-laws of harassing her for dowry. Interestingly, Kalra had written a letter, which was produced on record, addressed to her husband a few days after she left her matrimonial home expressing her love for him.

Focussing on this letter, the Bench concluded that Sangeeta Kalra had "changed colour" and lodged the police complaint, within the space of a few days, merely to harass her husband and her in-laws. "She who showered praises on her husband for his love and affection, suddenly made allegations of dowry demand and cruelty," the court
remarked. "It seems that the complainant (Kalra), who left the matrimonial home due to failure of physical relationship and resultant dissatisfaction, later on thought of implicating every member of the family in an anti-dowry and cruelty case," the Bench observed.