The main legal point established in the judgment is that demand of dowry is not a pre-condition to attract the provision of Section 498a IPC, and harassment and cruelty for demand of money not related to dowry shall also attract the provision of Section 498a IPC.

( 1 ) THIS petition is filed under Section 482 cr. P. C. for quashing the proceedings pending before the metropolitan Magistrate arising out of FIR No. 441/1998 under Section 498a IPC of P. S. Malviya Nagar.

( 2 ) BRIEFLY, the facts are that Kulwant Kaur filed a complaint with the Crime Against women Ceil, Nanakpura alleging harassment and cruelty caused to her by her husband Maan Singh, petitioner herein, and other members of his family for demand of money and for other reasons which have been narrated in the complaint. On the basis of this complaint FIR No. 441/1998 under Section 498a/406 ipc was registered. During the investigation the supplementary statement of complainant and her parents etc. was recorded. On completion of the investigation a challan was submitted for the prosecution of the petitioner and other members of his family under Section 498a/406 IPC. At the time of consideration of the case for framing of a charge the learned Metropolitan magistrate discharged the accused, other than the petitioner, of all the offences and also discharged the petitioner for offence under Section 406 IPC. But holding that prima-facie a case for framing of a charge for commission of offence under Section 498a IPC is made out against the petitioner Maan Singh, the said charge was framed against him.

( 3 ) THE petitioner is aggrieved and has challenged it in this petition.

THE argument of the counsel for the petitioner is that the allegations in the complaint do not disclose the commission of offence under Section 498a IPC.

SECTION 498a IPC is reproduced below:

498a. Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty - whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

EXPLANATION - For the purpose of this section, "cruelty" means -

(A) any wilful conduct which is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman; or

(B) harassment of the woman where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand. "

EXPLANATION (b) which is relevant define the word cruelty" used in Section 498a, as harassment related to demand of property or valuable security. The demand, as such, is a condition precedent to attract provision of explanation (b) of Section 498a ipc-

( 4 ) PRECISE argument of the counsel for the petitioner is that no allegation has been made by the complainant in the complaint that the petitioner had ever demanded the dowry from her and had harassed and treated her with cruelty for compelling her to give the dowry. He is not correct in arguing that the cruelty should be relatable to the demand of dowry only. In fact demand of dowry is not- a pre-condition nor is necessary to attract the provision of Section 498a IPC (See Pyare Lal vs. State of Haryana ( (1997) 11 SCC 552 ). what is contemplated in explanation (b) of section 498a is that cruelty should be committed to coerce wife or her relative to meet unlawful demand of property or valuable security . So a demand of money not related to dowry and the harassment of wife with a view to compel her or her parents etc. to pay it shall attract the provision of Section 498a IPC.

( 5 ) IN the light of this principle of law the complaint of the wife may now be examined. In the beginning of the complaint at one place the complainant has alleged "after some months of my marriage my husband started pressurising me to bring some money from my parents to start my treatment since he had no money for my treatment. My parents came to know that their daughter is affected with Jaundice. It was also known to them I was pr