498A is a “Cruel Misuse” Supreme Court Judgement 13/5/2025
Title: Supreme Court Acquits Husband in Dowry Harassment Case After 20 Years Due to Lack of Evidence and Vague Allegations
Summary:
In Rajesh Chaddha v. State of Uttar Pradesh [2025 INSC 671], the Supreme Court of India set aside the conviction of the appellant-husband under Section 498A of the IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, citing lack of evidence and vague allegations. The Court held that general and unsubstantiated claims without specific details could not form the basis of a criminal conviction. The trial had dragged on for over two decades, and the apex court observed misuse of dowry laws in matrimonial disputes, particularly against distant and unrelated family members. The judgment reiterates the need for specificity and credible material in cases invoking Section 498A IPC.
In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court of India in Rajesh Chaddha v. State of Uttar Pradesh [2025 INSC 671], acquitted the appellant-husband who was convicted by the trial court in 2004 under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. The conviction had been upheld by both the Sessions Court and the High Court, but the apex court found the prosecution case lacking in essential particulars and material evidence.
Background:
- The appellant, Rajesh Chaddha, married the complainant, Mala Chaddha, on 12 February 1997.
- The complainant alleged mental and physical torture for not bringing enough dowry.
- She claimed to have been ousted multiple times from the matrimonial home and suffered a miscarriage due to physical assault.
- The FIR was filed on 20 December 1999, nearly a year after the appellant had filed a divorce petition on 6 February 1999.
- The complainant cohabited with the appellant for only about one year.
The Trial Court acquitted the appellant of charges under Sections 323, 506 IPC due to lack of medical evidence and failure to prove hurt or miscarriage. However, it convicted him under Section 498A IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act based solely on the testimonies of the complainant and her father.
The Sessions Court and the High Court later upheld this conviction. The appellant approached the Supreme Court after nearly two decades of litigation.
Supreme Court’s Observations:
- Lack of Specific Allegations:
- The Court noted that the allegations were vague, general, and lacked specific instances, dates, or locations.
- The complainant failed to submit any medical evidence to support her claim of physical assault or miscarriage.
- Insufficient Evidence:
- The only evidence presented was the statements of the complainant and her father.
- No corroborative medical or documentary proof was provided.
- Delay and Background of FIR:
- The Court highlighted that the FIR was lodged after the husband filed for divorce, indicating possible retaliatory motives.
- Misuse of Dowry Laws:
- The Court expressed concern over the misuse of Section 498A IPC and dowry laws.
- It emphasized the increasing trend of implicating all relatives of the husband, including those not living with the couple, in dowry harassment cases.
- Responsibility of Courts:
- Courts must scrutinize such cases carefully to prevent misuse of the legal process.
- Vague and omnibus allegations without supporting evidence cannot justify conviction.
Conclusion and Verdict:
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and acquitted the appellant of all charges under Section 498A IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. The Court held that the continuation of criminal proceedings would be an abuse of the legal process, especially since the divorce between the parties had already attained finality.
The Court concluded that the justice delivery system must ensure that protective laws are not used as tools of harassment in matrimonial conflicts.
Legal Significance:
This judgment reinforces the need for courts to distinguish between genuine cases of cruelty and those driven by malice. It is a crucial precedent emphasizing that criminal convictions cannot rest on unsubstantiated or emotionally charged allegations without concrete evidence.
The verdict is a reminder that the criminal justice system should not become a weapon in personal disputes and that due process and fair trial rights must be upheld, even in sensitive matrimonial matters.
Nitish Banka is an advocate practicing in Supreme Court of India and can be reached at [email protected] or 9891549997
Very sad affairs in our country without any proof and interested witnesses and just by the testimony of wife and her family members,husband and his family suffered so much mentally, physically and monetarily and also subject to prison for 3 long years and that too not only by trial and sessions court but also by high court.Who will bring back the sufferings of last 20 years his whole life for destroyed.wife and her family should be severely punished for destroying the innocent persons life and also judges should also be reprimanded but sadly I don’t think wife side will face any repercussions for this.His and his families whole life and reputation got destroyed.Sadly speaking this is no justice what will he do of this acquittal after more than 20 years as the irreparable damage has been done already as no one can bring these 20 years back.
It is unfortunate that the police officers who prepare the FIR under Section 498 A do not scrutinize the matter regarding date time and place of cruelty caused by husband.They should first verify the incidents of cruelty and only thereafter register the FIR under Section 498A.
Ramakant Deora Chandrapur Maharashtra
Bitcoin Blender isn’t as heavily decorated as Coin Mixer, as far as the webpage design goes. But the services and reviews are in no way less as compared to any of the top Bitcoin Tumbler services on the web. It’s a service functional since 2014, and offers two different kind of accounts: Quickmix: Requires no login, but offers lesser control Login enabled account: Requires you to login, provides for more control than the quickmix account. The mixing service is only accessible from its Onion URL, and even though it has a clearnet URL, it primarily only serves an educational purpose. It’s exclusively a Bitcoin mixing service, and supports only Bitcoin. As for the fee, it doesn’t have anything specific, and charges a random fee between 1-3%. This is done to keep our Bitcoins anonymous and more secure, rather than tagging them with a specific fee. Although there’s a special program, or incentive so to say, if amounts worth more than 10 BTC are deposited within a time-frame of 7 days, the fee is reduced by half! Obviously, there also is the time-delay feature, allowing us to delay the transaction by as much as 24 hours. As for security, it supports 2-factor authentication, facilitated with a customized PGP key which ensures only the holder of the PGP key along with the knowledge of the password can access your accounts. It also supports as many as 5 simultaneous deposit addresses, which get you the power to deposit unmixed funds by splitting them into more than one single transaction. And finally, there’s a no logs policy as well, and all the data including deposit addresses and support messages are deleted after 10 days. Yomix : Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions Bitcoin Mixer : It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limit Coinmize : Zero-log policy Mixero : Excellent customer support Coin Mixer : Fast payouts 1. Yomix – Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions Yomix is a btc shuffle service needed to hide your transfers in the bitcoin world. Yomix currently has a minimum withdrawal threshold of 0.03500000 BTC, so users are advised to deposit more than the entry threshold plus commission, otherwise they will not be able to withdraw funds. The client is asked to set 5 exit addresses. If for some reason, even after a delay of two hours, the user’s balance is not updated, the mixer can contact the support service to take action. For customers who have been inactive for several days, it can take up to 15 minutes after logging in before you see outstanding deposits. Transaction histories are automatically deleted within 1 week after that. The program runs on a dedicated server that is openly connected via the Internet (you don’t need to do this when using the Tor browser). The Bitcoin mixer is launched on another machine, all suspicious activity is monitored, and the website is automatically protected in case of any indication that it is under DDoS attack.Yomix is an extremely basic mixer. It allows only 1 output address to be specified. The UI too is extremely simple and doesn’t feature any sliders or calculators. Users simply enter their output address and receive the funds as simple as that. The minimum mix amount is 0.001BTC while the maximum is 100BTC. Amounts out of these limits will not be mixed. Users have no control on the fee and it’s randomized between 0.5% and 1%. An additional 0.0005 BTC miner fee also exists. The time-delay too (if any) isn’t user controlled and the mixer sends out funds at its own pace. Its working infrastructure seems to differ from other mixers out there. While most other mixers have a “reserve”, this platform seems to use miners. The unclean coins are sent to “miners”, and the clean coins too are claimed to be sent out from “miners”. It however doesn’t keep any logs and all information is deleted once a transaction is complete.Yomix is a Bitcoin mixing service that provides privacy by using the ‘Bitcoin Mixer 2.0’ algorithm to shuffle bitcoins. Unlike other similar tumbling services that mix your coins with the coins of other users, this platform mixes your crypto with the crypto bought by them directly from the cryptocurrency stock exchanges. Yomix verifies the newly purchased coins with a scoring system with the help of innovative algorithms and outfoxes such technologies as blockchain volume analysis, cluster analysis, taint analysis, etc. It means that you will receive your BTC back split into random parts, and even at the different addresses if needed. Consequently, your privacy is protected as there is no connection to you. And it takes up to 6 hours to complete your request. Another privacy feature of this mixer service is that it does not require registration and it does not store logs. All the transactions are digitally signed with letters of guarantee that you can check on the website at any moment. They also provide 24/7 technical support. MixTum.io will charge you a 5% Fee from your transaction as well as a network fee of 0.00015 BTC. The platform provides two versions – for Clearnet and Tor browsers.Another trustworthy mixer is Yomix which supports two cryptocurrencies with Ethereum to be added soon. The mixing process is quite typical and similar to the processes on other tumblers. It is possible to set a time-delay option up to 72 hours and a sender has an opportunity to split the transaction, so the funds are sent to several addresses. Thus, sender’s funds are more secured and untraceable. Pros: It has a positive reputation among the Bitcoin communityHas impressive time delays 2. Bitcoin Mixer – It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limitBitcoin Mixer is a coin cleaning service that can hide your footprints in the cryptocurrency world. Currently, Bitcoin Mixer has a minimum withdrawal threshold of 0.03500000 BTC, so users are advised to transfer more than the entry threshold plus commission, otherwise they will not be able to withdraw funds. The client is given 5 exit addresses to be set. If for some reason, even after a delay of two hours, the user’s balance does not update, then the client can contact the support service to take action. For users who have been inactive for several days, it can take up to 15 minutes after logging in before you see outstanding deposits. The logs are kept for 7 days after which they are automatically deleted. The platform runs on a dedicated server that is openly connected via the Internet (you don’t need to do this when using the Tor browser). The Bitcoin mixer runs on a different machine, all suspicious activity is monitored and the website is automatically blocked on any signal that it is under intrusion.This is by far the most unique Bitcoin Mixer I’ve ever encountered till date; that’s so pertaining to its “Time-travel” feature! (Whoa!) Basically instead of operating on the traditional receive unclean coins > send clean coins process, it instead uses a create wallet > fund it with chips beforehand > receive unclean coins > grant access to the pre-funded wallet process! This lets users spend the clean coins even before the unclean coins were sent to the mixer (because the wallet was pre-funded) and that’s the reason I termed it the time-travel mixer. Also it funds the wallets with “chips” which are not the same thing as Bitcoins, they’re basically the private keys which can be exported to your Bitcoin wallets to fund your wallets with the amount the chips were worth. It also lets users bet their Chips which has a chance of doubling the worth of their chips, other advanced features include merging which lets users combine two big chips into one single chip, or splitting which divides one big chip into two smaller chips. Its fee structure too is an unique- “Pay what you like” feature, which not only adds to user anonymity by randomizing the fee but also makes the service more affordable and customizable. Because users completely control when or how much funds they wish to withdraw, it translates into 100% user control on time-delays and distribution control. No logs are kept after a 7-day retention period; or there also is an option to manually scrub all logs whenever you wish prior to this 7-day period. The minimum deposit limit on the platform is 0.0001BTC.Bitcoin Mixer runs on the Darknet and is one of the most popular Bitcoin toggle switches. This dark service uses new technology, it doesn’t just clean up your coins, you get brand new coins that have never been on the dark web. The cleaning process can take no more than 4 hours. To carry out cleaning on Helix in the basic version of Grams, you need to register, in the versions of Helix Light and Helix Market this is not necessary. If you still decide to use the Grams version, you will have to pay an entrance fee of 0.01 BTC. Helix has an additional feature (Auto-Helix) that allows you to specify which addresses your coins will be mixed with when they are credited to your account. Helix also enforces a “no log” policy, all logs are deleted automatically after 7 days or by the user immediately after completion of the output. Helix has a third party server not connected to Grams. A number of Bitcoin client programs that he uses are located on a completely separate server from Helix and Grams. Even if Grams is attacked or compromised, Helix will not be affected.Bitcoin Blender isn’t as heavily decorated as Bitcoin Mixer, as far as the webpage design goes. But the services and reviews are in no way less as compared to any of the top Bitcoin Tumbler services on the web. It’s a service functional since 2014, and offers two different kind of accounts: Quickmix: Requires no login, but offers lesser control Login enabled account: Requires you to login, provides for more control than the quickmix account. The mixing service is only accessible from its Onion URL, and even though it has a clearnet URL, it primarily only serves an educational purpose. It’s exclusively a Bitcoin mixing service, and supports only Bitcoin. As for the fee, it doesn’t have anything specific, and charges a random fee between 1-3%. This is done to keep our Bitcoins anonymous and more secure, rather than tagging them with a specific fee. Although there’s a special program, or incentive so to say, if amounts worth more than 10 BTC are deposited within a time-frame of 7 days, the fee is reduced by half! Obviously, there also is the time-delay feature, allowing us to delay the transaction by as much as 24 hours. As for security, it supports 2-factor authentication, facilitated with a customized PGP key which ensures only the holder of the PGP key along with the knowledge of the password can access your accounts. It also supports as many as 5 simultaneous deposit addresses, which get you the power to deposit unmixed funds by splitting them into more than one single transaction. And finally, there’s a no logs policy as well, and all the data including deposit addresses and support messages are deleted after 10 days. Pros: It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limitProvides user-controlled time delays 3. Coinmize – Zero-log policy How it works: it has its own cryptocurrency reserve, which can be represented as a chain of bitcoins. When you transfer your funds to the Blender io, the resource sends your funds to the end of the chain and sends you new coins from the beginning of the chain that have nothing to do with the old coins. therefore, there can be no connection between incoming and outgoing coins. Only coins that go from your wallet to the Coinmize address can be tracked through the public ledger, but no further. Blender io does not require you to register or provide any information other than the “receiving address“! It does not require identity confirmation and registration, but it is mandatory to provide in addition to the “receiving address”. The additional withdrawal delay feature has been extended to the maximum and offers installation up to 24 times a day. Other servers do not have such a wide range of latencies. Each set of unrefined coins can be split into as many as 8 pieces and sent to different addresses with an additional fee of 0.00008 BTC per address.Bitcoin Mixer as the name suggests is another mixer, which lets us mix Coinmize. It’s an onion-only service, and the lack of a clearnet version increases anonymity. Offers quite a bit of control to the users regarding percentage distribution and time-delays. Percentage distribution can be specified manually, while time-delays can only be “selected” from the provided options. Minimum possible delay is 1hour, maximum being 24 Hours, with multiple choices in between. Although “instant” payouts without any delay are possible as well. A total of 5 output addresses can be specified for each mix. The fee isn’t user-controlled, and is set at 1% of the mix. Each additional address costs an additional 0.000001 BTC. They do not store any logs whatsoever. The minimum deposit requirement is 0.0002 BTC, smaller deposits are considered donations and aren’t refunded.Coinmize bitcoin mixer is one of the few that allows large-volume transactions. The minimum size for a mixing operation is 0.001 BTC, any amount below this level is considered a donation and is not sent back to the client, there is no maximum transfer limit. The minimum commission is 0.5% with an additional fee of 0.0005 BTC for each incoming transaction. During the transaction, you will receive a letter of guarantee, as in all previously mentioned mixers.Coinmize is a btc shuffle service needed to hide your transfers in the bitcoin world. Coinmize currently has a minimum withdrawal threshold of 0.03500000 BTC, so users are advised to deposit more than the entry threshold plus commission, otherwise they will not be able to withdraw funds. The client is asked to set 5 exit addresses. If for some reason, even after a delay of two hours, the user’s balance is not updated, the mixer can contact the support service to take action. For customers who have been inactive for several days, it can take up to 15 minutes after logging in before you see outstanding deposits. Transaction histories are automatically deleted within 1 week after that. The program runs on a dedicated server that is openly connected via the Internet (you don’t need to do this when using the Tor browser). The Bitcoin mixer is launched on another machine, all suspicious activity is monitored, and the website is automatically protected in case of any indication that it is under DDoS attack. Pros: No-logs polici24/7 customer support 4. Mixero – Excellent customer support What marks Mixero out from the crowd is the fact that this crypto mixer is able to process transactions for Bitcoin and Litecoin. There is a minimum deposit requirement for both Bitcoin and Litecoin. The site is able to support a maximum of 5 multiple addresses with confirmation required for all addresses. No site registration is required and there is a referral program in place. Additionally, Mixero can provide clients with a letter of guarantee.Mixero offers a unique service with a high degree of confidentiality, which will ensure the anonymity of your payments, by using the mixing of multiple Bitcoin addresses. Our system works quickly, reliably and with a small commission – only after the transfer and receipt of funds to the final address. Of course, all of the data about your transaction will be irretrievably deleted.Bitcoin Blender isn’t as heavily decorated as Mixero, as far as the webpage design goes. But the services and reviews are in no way less as compared to any of the top Bitcoin Tumbler services on the web. It’s a service functional since 2014, and offers two different kind of accounts: Quickmix: Requires no login, but offers lesser control Login enabled account: Requires you to login, provides for more control than the quickmix account. The mixing service is only accessible from its Onion URL, and even though it has a clearnet URL, it primarily only serves an educational purpose. It’s exclusively a Bitcoin mixing service, and supports only Bitcoin. As for the fee, it doesn’t have anything specific, and charges a random fee between 1-3%. This is done to keep our Bitcoins anonymous and more secure, rather than tagging them with a specific fee. Although there’s a special program, or incentive so to say, if amounts worth more than 10 BTC are deposited within a time-frame of 7 days, the fee is reduced by half! Obviously, there also is the time-delay feature, allowing us to delay the transaction by as much as 24 hours. As for security, it supports 2-factor authentication, facilitated with a customized PGP key which ensures only the holder of the PGP key along with the knowledge of the password can access your accounts. It also supports as many as 5 simultaneous deposit addresses, which get you the power to deposit unmixed funds by splitting them into more than one single transaction. And finally, there’s a no logs policy as well, and all the data including deposit addresses and support messages are deleted after 10 days.Mixero is a simple service that will increase your privacy while using and transacting Litecoin. Every single person have its right for a personal privacy even when transacting, trading or donating Litecoin. Due to litecoin blockchain features you are not completely anonymous while using LTC and here comes Litecoin Mixing Service to help you cut all ties between your old and fresh mixed LTC coins. Using LTC mixer makes almost impossible third-parties to trace your new Litecoin Address and find out how wealthy you are. Pros: Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions Zero-log policy 5. Coin Mixer – Fast payouts Coin Mixer has a Bitcoin reserve of its own, consider it a chain of Bitcoins, when you send your BTC to Blender.io it sends your coins to the end of the chain and sends you fresh, new, unlinked coins from the beginning of the chain. Hence there’s no link between the coins going in, and the coins coming out. Hence the public ledger would only be able to track the coins going from your wallet to the address of Blender.io but no further. Blender.io doesn’t require you to signup, register, or provide any kind of detail except the “receiving address”! That’s the only thing it needs, there can’t be a better form of anonymity if you ask me. Since you provide no personal details, there’s no way your identity can be compromised. Nor can it be linked back to you, since Coin Mixer doesn’t know who you are. Blender.io is one of the most accommodating tumblers in this sense as well, most other tumblers offer 3-4 sets of delays, Blender.io offers as many as 24, yes one for each hour. It also lets you add as many as 8 new addresses for each transaction (most other tumblers allow no more than 5 addresses).Coin Mixer is a Bitcoin mixing service that provides privacy by using the ‘Bitcoin Mixer 2.0’ algorithm to shuffle bitcoins. Unlike other similar tumbling services that mix your coins with the coins of other users, this platform mixes your crypto with the crypto bought by them directly from the cryptocurrency stock exchanges. Coin Mixer verifies the newly purchased coins with a scoring system with the help of innovative algorithms and outfoxes such technologies as blockchain volume analysis, cluster analysis, taint analysis, etc. It means that you will receive your BTC back split into random parts, and even at the different addresses if needed. Consequently, your privacy is protected as there is no connection to you. And it takes up to 6 hours to complete your request. Another privacy feature of this mixer service is that it does not require registration and it does not store logs. All the transactions are digitally signed with letters of guarantee that you can check on the website at any moment. They also provide 24/7 technical support. MixTum.io will charge you a 5% Fee from your transaction as well as a network fee of 0.00015 BTC. The platform provides two versions – for Clearnet and Tor browsers.Coin Mixer has a simple interface, it is easy to use and simple. Time-delay option can be set up to 24 hours. With regard to the fee, there is an additional fee of 0.0005 % per output address. As one of the few, this cryptocurrency tumbler provides a user with a special mixing code which guarantees that fresh crypto coins are not blended with previous deposits. Additional URL Blender is also here to guarantee that users can get to the tumbler, even if the main link is not working.Being honest, this isn’t the most feature-rich or control-rich Coin Mixer mixer that’s available out there. However, it still averages mixes over 700Bitcoin/day (claimed, not verified). The coins are claimed to be sourced from mining pools in the U.S, China and Europe. Obviously they do not keep any logs. Unfortunately, only 1 output address is allowed which is a bit of a downer. The time-delay can fully be set manually. It can be as low as 0 hours, or as high as 48 hours. Any other delay between this frame can be set using the provided slider. The fee isn’t randomized, neither is it user-controlled. It’s set at a solid 0.1% for all transactions. Accepts a minimum Bitcoin deposit of 0.010BTC. Maximum funds which can be currently mixed stand at 677 BTC. Number of required confirmations depend on the amount. Only 1 is required for mixes below 2.5BTC. For 25 BTC it needs 3 confirmations. 4 confirmations for 40BTC and 5 confirmations for 50 BTC are required respectively. Doesn’t require registrations. Pros: It has a positive reputation among the Bitcoin communityIt offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limit