Daughter-In-Law Cannot Be Treated Like A Bonded Labourer: Orissa HC

Cuttack:  In a landmark judgment, the Orissa High Court here maintained that a daughter-in-law cannot be treated as a bonded labourer in her in-law’s house.

A division bench of Justice Sanjib Kumar Panigrahi, while rejecting a bail plea of the man from Dhenkanal district accused of dowry torture and attempt to murder, said that a daughter-in-law should be treated with compassion.

The court further said that bail cannot be granted to a perpetrator of heinous crime on the basis of the number of days he has been lodged in the jail.

According to the case record, the complainant had married the accused on February 20, 2015, and her father had given Rs 5 lakh cash, 200 grams of gold ornaments and other household articles as dowry during the wedding.

After two years, the woman’s in-laws began to torture her physically for more dowry. The matter was subsequently resolved by the villagers.

The incident, however, took an ugly turn when the accused and his family members severely thrashed the victim on June 6, 2020, and poured kerosene on her body.

She managed to escape from their clutches and lodged a complaint at Tumusingha police station.

Acting on the complaint, police registered a case under Sections 498 (a), 294, 323, 307, 506 and 34 of the IPC and arrested the accused.

The accused later filed a petition in the SDJM court in Dhenkanal. On getting no relief from the lower court, he then moved the HC for regular bail.