1. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 482 of the Code is filed by the petitioner, sister-in-law of respondent No.2 /complainant widow whose husband died after treatment of Jaundice at Sterling Hospital, Bhavnagar.
2. It is the case of the petitioner that petitioner is falsely implicated and she is not even staying at the place where the complainant stays and the petitioner is having status, reputation and being law abiding citizen has never committed crimes as alleged. It is also submitted that the main purpose of filing the complaint, if the entire tenure is taken together it is indicative of the fact that the complainant wants her share in the joint property and, therefore, the process of law is misused and abused which deserves to be quashed and set aside in exercise of powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India as well as under Section 482 of the Code.
3. In support of the arguments as above, learned advocate for the petitioner has relied on some statement annexed with this petition so as to point out that the respondent No.2 for about 8 years stayed at her parental home and thus so far as petitioner is concerned being sister-in-law and staying at Rajkot had no role whatsoever to play prior to 2007 and even thereafter and, therefore, also the complaint has no merit and qua the petitioner atleast powers as prayed for be exercised in this petition.
4. The above contention of learned advocate for the petitioner has no merit inasmuch as, as per the version of the complainant, when she married on 12.12.1998 with one Bhrugurajsinh J. Gohil that is brother of the petitioner, immediately she was subjected to cruelty by all family members and the petitioner herein who used to visit her parental home has also participated in the crimes as alleged. Since the cruelty continued and the respondent No.2 was pregnant she had no other option but to leave the matrimonial home and stayed with her parents. However, late husband of respondent No.2 ultimately realising the injustice meeted out to his wife, respondent No.2 made certain arrangement to stay away from the family and, therefore, rented the premise and accordingly respondent No.2 started residing with her husband. Unfortunately due to ailment of Jaundice her husband died and now as stated by complainant what is promised by the in-laws is some lump sum amount to be paid to her and further subjected her to mental torture. Even in the rented premises where the complainant was staying is no more with her and in the above circumstances the complaint filed by respondent No.2 making allegations of cruelty, ill treatment against the petitioner need to be investigated by the competent investigating officer and no interference at this stage is called for exercising powers by this Court as prayed for.
5. Considering overall facts and circumstances in absence of merit, this petition is rejected.
[ANANT S. DAVE, J.] //smita// Top