The Supreme Court has ruled that a husband or a relative cannot be convicted of harassing the wife, if the complaint is made after passage of a considerable time following the alleged act.

A bench of Justices Mukundakam Sharma and B S Chauhan passed the ruling while setting aside the conviction and three-year sentence imposed on a person, Manju Ram Kalita, a resident of Kamrup district in Assam.

The apex court while quashing the charge against Kalita under Section 498 (harassment of wife by husband or relatives), however, upheld his conviction for bigamy (494 IPC).

The bench noted that in the present case the complaint was lodged three years after the alleged harassment and hence cannot be sustained.

However, she lodged the complaint with the police under Section 498A (harassment) only in 1997 and also under Section 494 (bigamy) wherein she alleged that Kalita had married another woman Ranju Sharma.

The trial court convicted and sentenced the husband to two years RI under Section 498A and three years under Section 494. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

The Gauhati High Court upheld the conviction following which the husband appealed in the apex court.

The apex court interpreting section 498A said, “It is to be established that the woman has been subjected to cruelty continuously/persistently or at least in close proximity of time of lodging the complaint.

“Petty quarrels cannot be termed as ‘cruelty’ to attract the provisions of Section 498-A IPC. Causing mental torture to the extent that it becomes unbearable may be termed as cruelty.”

The apex court, however, sustained the conviction under Section 495 as it was a fact which was established by the prosecution.