After the furore over the Supreme Court’s recent observation that “kicking” or “threatening” women by in-laws cannot be construed as “cruelty” under Section 498 A of the IPC, the government has “agreed” to file a review petition. The decision comes following a meeting of Law Minister Veerappa Moily with National Commission of Women chairperson Dr Girija Vyas. “I have written to the Law Minister and also met him today. He has agreed to study the judgment and file a review petition soon,” Vyas said. Backing the NCW stand, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath said: “The law should be in favour of women. Strict action should be taken against husband or in-laws, whosoever is responsible for violence,” she said.

Calling it an “insensitive reading of the law”, CPM Politburo member Brinda Karat had asked the Centre to file a review petition challenging the judgment. She has also asked Moily to “urgently study” the judgment. She said such a judicial understanding of cruelty would become a licence for domestic violence.

The SC has ruled that a husband cannot be prosecuted under Section 498(A) of the IPC because his mother or family members kicked her or threatened her with divorce.

The ruling came on a pile appeal filed by an NRI and his family in a matrimonial dispute case in India.