BASANT Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANT Basant has been convicted under Section 498-A, Indian Penal Code for treating his wife Jaswantabai with cruelty and he has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years and to a fine of Rs. 1,000/ -.

(2.) SMT. Jaswantabai and appellant Basant have filed a petition stating therein that they want to compromise this matter. Section 498-A, IPC is non-compoundable and, therefore, permission to compound the offence cannot be given.

(3.) ON a perusal of judgment of the Trial Court it is found that it is wholly unsustainable. The police had filed a charge-sheet under Section 307, IPC against Jaswantabai on the ground that she jumped into the Well with her two minor child ren. She has been acquitted of that charge. In this charge-sheet the husband was also impleaded as accused. The wife has not made any complaint against her husband. She has also not appeared as a witness against him. Therefore, in the absence of any evidence regarding the cruelty to the wife by the husband, there can be no conviction under Section 498-A, Indian Penal Code. .