Woman accuses husband of harassment,in dock for fraud

Soon after the woman left the house,she slapped an FIR against her husband under penal provisions pertaining to cruelty and criminal breach of trust. He,meanwhile,decided to retaliate.

Even as the man and his family were being tried for dowry harassment by a city trial court,he told the authorities concerned that his wife possessed two Pan cards,bearing two different dates of birth. Her husband knew that the woman had failed in her Class X CBSE exams in 1990,prompting her parents to get her admitted to another school in Punjab.

To ensure that she did not lose an academic year,her father reportedly submitted an affidavit in the school,disclosing a date of birth two years prior to her actual birth. She passed her Class X in in 1991,and got married in 2005. She now had two Pan cards,and was reportedly unaware of the possible repercussions.

Months after the woman filed the FIR against her husband and in-laws,he wrote to the authorities about the two Pan cards she carried. He also alleged that she had been using both the cards in an illegal manner. Pursuant to his complaint,the police registered a case against the woman under the penal provisions of cheating and forgery last year. A magistrate summoned her to face prosecution in August 2010. Consequently,while the husband and her family were being tried for offences entailing a maximum jail term of three years,the woman faced the possibility of spending seven years behind bars.

Alarmed,the woman moved the High Court,demanding that the FIR against her be quashed. The woman termed the case as a “counterblast” to the one she had lodged against her husband.

The bench,headed by Justice Pradeep Nandarajog,said apart from the husband,six other witnesses were examined in this regard. “The same showed that the she was living her life under two identities,relying on two Pan cards at her convenience,” he said. The woman’s municipal birth certificate supported her husband’s allegations.

The court also made it clear to the woman that if she has the right to accuse her husband of an offence,her husband has an equal right to bring out the charges against her. “Indeed,obtaining two Pan cards and living a dual life is a serious offence against the State,” the judge held,ordering the woman to go back to the magistrate and face trial.