Chandigarh, February 21
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has deprecated the practice of implicating the aged following matrimonial dispute between their sons and their wives staying abroad. Asking the police to take care of the fact, Justice Jagmohan Bansal also admonished the NRI Commission for asking the authorities to register FIRs against the elderly in a mechanical manner.
The ruling by Justice Bansal came in a case where the trial court summoned the groom and his parents under Section 498-A, IPC, on subjecting a married woman to cruelty after treating the respondent-wife’s allegations as “gospel truth”.
Justice Bansal asserted the court found that similar set of allegations were levelled either before the court or the police authorities in every complaint. The aged parents were staying in India, while the bride at the time of marriage was holding Canada’s permanent residency and left for the country a month after the marriage. She was since then staying in Canada. The parents stayed with her for a “very few days”. The groom filed a divorce petition in a Court at Canada, following which the decree of divorce stood passed and the estranged wife solemnised second marriage.
Justice Bansal asserted it was “very strange” that many persons were lodging complaint against the groom’s aged parents staying in India, whereas he and the wife were staying outside the country. It was unfortunate that the boy and girl happily staying abroad did not care for the aged parents.
It was also found that they many a times did not come for their medical treatment. At times, they did not even come on the day of their parents’ death and the body had to wait for days for cremation. The funeral formalities were performed by the neighbours or the relatives.
Justice Bansal added the court also noticed that the NRI Commission was in a mechanical manner asking the police authorities to register an FIR against the aged many a times staying in villages without medical facilities. They were asked to go behind the bars at the fag-end of their life. This, Justice Bansal added, was against Indian ethics and culture. Referring to the facts of the case in hand, Justice Basal added it was fortunate that the police found the petitioners to be innocent. But the trial court in a mechanical manner summoned all the petitioners. Allowing the petition, Justice Bansal quashed the complaint case and the summoning order dated November 18, 2015, against the aged parents and the groom.
The aged parents were staying in India, while the bride at the time of marriage was holding Canada’s permanent residency and left for the country a month after the marriage. She was since then staying in Canada. The groom filed a divorce petition in a Canadian court, following which the decree of divorce stood passed & estranged wife solemnised second marriage.
