Not allowing mother to meet child amounts to cruelty and harassment, says Bombay High Court

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The Bombay High Court has held that not letting a child meet its mother amounts to "cruelty" under the Indian Penal Code, and refused to quash a first information report registered against the in-laws of a Jalna-based petitioner.

According to news agency PTI, a bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rohit Joshi at Aurangabad noted in its order released on Wednesday that the woman's four-year-old daughter is being kept away from her despite a lower court's order.

"Keeping a young child of four years away from her mother also amounts to mental harassment, amounting to cruelty in as much as it would certainly cause grave injury to the mental health of the mother," the Bombay High Court said.

Such behaviour by in-laws amounts to "cruelty" as defined under section 498A ("Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to thres years and shall also be liable to fine") of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Bombay High Court added, according to PTI.

"The mental harassment is continuing from day to day till date. It is a continuing wrong," the bench observed.

The Bombay High Court bench also stated that it would not quash the woman's FIR as this was not a fit case for the court to interfere.

According to PTI, the woman's father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law had sought the quashing of the 2022 FIR registered against them in Jalna district of Maharashtra for alleged cruelty, harassment and criminal intimidation.

The woman got married in 2019 and had a daughter the following year. However, the husband and his family members allegedly started demanding money from her parents and also abused her physically and verbally.

In May 2022, the woman was allegedly thrown out of the matrimonial house and not allowed to take her daughter with her, her petition stated.

She then filed an application before a magistrate's court seeking her daughter's custody. Last year, the Bombay High Court ordered the husband to hand over custody of the child to the mother. However, the order was not complied with and the daughter continues to remain with the woman's husband, she stated in the Bombay High Court.

The in-laws denied the allegations of cruelty and harassment, and claimed to have been implicated in a false case.

However, the bench noted that although the child was with the husband, the applicants (in-laws) were assisting him by keeping his whereabouts secret. "Those who do not have respect for judicial orders are not entitled to relief," the high court remarked.

(With PTI inputs)