Marrying a person with an intention to cheat! - What is this world coming to?

Exercising its extra-constitutional authority, the Delhi High Court on Monday quashed a dowry harassment case registered in Ajmer, Rajasthan, concluding that it was an attempt by the complainant to extort money from her husband. Justice S. N. Dhingra said the wife had misled the petitioner, marrying him with an intention to cheat.

She misinformed the man about her background and lineage by claiming to be a retired High Court judge’s daughter and a gynaecologist by profession. “It is settled in law that normally the court should not quash the FIR and should allow the investigation to proceed and come to a logical conclusion. The court should quash the FIR only in rarest in rare cases. It is also the responsibility of the court to see that the provisions of law are not used as tools of harassment by impersonators and cheaters for extortion,” said Justice Dhingra.

The complainant got married to the petitioner in 2000 after she responded to an matrimonial advertisement, in which he desired for a partner who was not willing to have a physical relationship. In her response, the complainant had claimed to be the daughter of Justice S. N. Bhargava, a virgin and a doctor. For more than a year after the marriage in Ajmer, the couple lived at their respective hometowns. In 2002, the complainant moved to Delhi to live with her husband. After the two started living together, the complainant learnt of the fraud played upon him. He learnt that she was a divorcee and had two children from the first wedlock, that she was not a judge’s daughter and that she had studied till tenth standard only.