The accused husband can not be granted anticipatory relief under Section 498A of the IPC with the condition that he brings his wife home and maintains and respects her, the Supreme Court has said.

The case was being heard by a Division Bench consisting of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma.

Before the Jharkhand High Court, Ranchi Bench, the accused husband (appellant), in this case, has requested anticipatory bail.

Despite granting the husband bail, the High Court placed an unusual requirement on him.

Accordingly, the husband was expected to bring the wife to his house and treat her with respect.

For ease of reading, the same appears as follows:



In light of this, the petitioner is ordered to appear in court within six weeks from now.

Should he be arrested or surrender himself, the bail can be extended once the trial court certifies that he has brought the opposing party no. 2 to his home in the Ranchi neighborhood of Bandra and is treating her as his legitimate wife, treating her with the utmost respect and dignity.

In response, the spouse went before the High Court once more and begged that the aforementioned order be changed.

The husband claimed in a petition (for modification of order) that he was prepared to support his wife because he had rented a home.

The woman, on the other hand, argued that she was ready to go back into the marriage as long as her husband moved in with her.

But the appellant is determined not to resume his life with his wife at his own home, the High Court noted, dismissing his plea.

The petition could not be examined because of the appellant's insistence on not continuing their marriage in the appellant's home, where the other party was staying.

In light of this, the case reached the Supreme Court. The Court declared unequivocally that it is not permissible to impose such a restriction in conjunction with anticipatory bail.

Furthermore, the appellant's petition shouldn't be denied due to this circumstance.

We believe that the High Court should not have placed such a condition on the issuance of an anticipatory bail, nor could it serve as a basis for dismissing the appellant's petition.

In light of this, the Court granted the accused bail while overturning the contested ruling.

Case number: Diary number: 14262 - 2023; plaintiff: Kunal Choudhariy v. State of Jharkhand