In dowry death cases, the relatives of the husband can be implicated only if he or she is related by “blood, marriage or adoption.” However, such immunity will not lie if a relative, near or far to the husband, is charged with any other offence, such as abetment to suicide, the Supreme Court has held.
The Punjab Government had approached the SC in a case against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order in which a man distantly related to the husband of a dowry death victim was implicated as an accused by the woman’s family. The person happened to be the brother of the husband’s aunt.
The Bench first noted that Section 304B of the IPC gave an impression that “when a woman dies by any burns or bodily injury or otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of the marriage, her husband or any relative of her husband shall be deemed to have committed the offence of dowry death if it is shown that soon before the death the woman was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband, or by any relative of her husband.”
The Bench of Justices CK Prasad and PC Ghose then pointed out that this section exposed the husband or any of his relative to be prosecuted for the crime. The Bench said, “A person cannot be treated as a relative for prosecution in a dowry death case unless the person is related to the husband by blood, marriage or adoption.”
By this logic, the apex court upheld the Punjab and Haryana High Court order which quashed the summons issued to the man by the trial court. The apex court, however, made it clear this did not mean that he/she cannot be tried for any other offence like abetment to suicide.