Criminal proceedings founded on omnibus allegations and filed as a custody counterblast constitute abuse of process.

The petitioner-husband sought quashing under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, of proceedings under Sections 498A, 506, 509 read with Section 34 IPC. His wife had lived at her parental home in Bolpur from October 2019 to manage her late father’s business and died of COVID-19 on 21 April 2021. Nearly five months later, her mother lodged a complaint alleging cruelty and related offences; a chargesheet followed.

The complaint was filed after the petitioner pursued custody of the couple’s minor son. The petitioner’s parents had previously obtained quashing of the same proceedings qua them. The petitioner relied on the parties’ separation, the absence of contemporaneous complaints, financial remittances and the custody dispute; the complainant’s side asserted that the case diary disclosed cruelty and harassment.

Whether the allegations and materials disclosed the essential ingredients of offences under Sections 498A, 506 and 509 IPC against the petitioner, given the parties’ prolonged separation and the wife’s death from COVID-19.

Whether the prosecution was mala fide and retaliatory, and whether its continuation amounted to abuse of process warranting quashing under Section 528 BNSS.

Section 498A IPC criminalises specified forms of cruelty by a husband or his relative, including wilful conduct likely to drive a woman to suicide or cause grave injury, and harassment to coerce an unlawful demand. The Court stated that the provision requires close temporal proximity and specific attribution of continuous harassment or cruelty.

It relied on Dara Lakshmi Narayan & Ors. v. State of Telangana & Anr., (2025) 3 SCC 735, concerning vague, omnibus and belated allegations, and on State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal, 1992 Supp (1) SCC 335, for the principle that inherent jurisdiction may be exercised where proceedings are manifestly mala fide or instituted with an ulterior motive to wreak vengeance. Section 528 BNSS provides the inherent jurisdiction invoked to prevent abuse of process.

The Court found that the wife had lived separately from the petitioner for nearly two years by mutual arrangement connected with her business, and that the petitioner had supported her and regularly remitted money. It considered the separation, absence of any contemporaneous complaint, and the COVID-19 cause of death inconsistent with the alleged continuing cruelty, and concluded that the allegations did not establish the ingredients of Sections 498A, 506 or 509 IPC.

It further treated the delay in lodging the complaint and its timing after the petitioner’s custody proceedings as evidence of a retaliatory counterblast. The Court also relied on parity with the earlier order quashing the case against the petitioner’s parents, finding no distinct or stronger allegations against him.

It allowed the revision and quashed the proceedings in G.R. Case No. 1128 of 2021, including the chargesheet and consequential orders, qua the petitioner. Connected applications were disposed of, any interim order was vacated, and there was no order as to costs.