The Jharkhand High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against a mother-in-law and sister-in-law, ruling that preventing a woman from entering her matrimonial home and insulting her does not legally constitute cruelty, restraint, or threat.

Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary was dealing with a plea of a mother-in-law and sister-in-law seeking quash of FIR and criminal proceedings in a dowry demand and cruelty case.

“The only allegation against the petitioners is that the petitioners did not allow the informant to enter into her ancestral matrimonial house and they insulted her, and apart from that there is absolutely no allegation against the petitioners, so, in the considered opinion of this court, even if the entire allegation made against the petitioners is considered to be true in its entirety, still the same is insufficient to constitute the offence punishable under Section 85 (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the BNS, 2023,” the November 4 order said.

The court…