Case law
Short, neutral summaries of judgements on maintenance, custody, divorce and related matters — general information only, not legal advice, and not a substitute for reading the full order or speaking to an advocate about your own case.
Section 498A · 9 Apr 2026
The wife filed a criminal case alleging physical assault and cruelty against her elderly in-laws, who suffered from documented medical ailments and age-related …
High Court at Calcutta · CRR 4014 of 2023 · PDF available
Divorce & Mental Cruelty · 7 Apr 2026
After marital discord, the wife had filed a criminal case under Section 498A IPC against the husband, which led to his arrest and a period in jail before he was…
High Court at Calcutta · FA No. 185 of 2022 · PDF available
Section 498A · 1 Apr 2026
Following domestic disagreements over household matters, the wife lodged an FIR under Section 498A IPC naming her husband's parents and extended family members …
High Court of Karnataka · 2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 130 · PDF available
Streedhan — Section 406 IPC · 31 Mar 2026
The parties married in April 2012. The wife later lodged an FIR under Sections 498-A, 323 IPC and the Dowry Prohibition Act alleging demands for additional dowr…
High Court of Judicature at Allahabad · 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 155 · PDF available
Maintenance Under Section 125 CrPC · 31 Mar 2026
A Family Court had fixed a monthly maintenance amount for the wife based solely on the husband's gross salary, without accounting for evidence that she was prof…
High Court of Judicature at Allahabad · 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 159 · PDF available
Maintenance · 31 Mar 2026
The wife earned ₹1.25 Lakhs to ₹1.66 Lakhs per month through her employment and had no children or dependents to maintain. She sought interim maintenance penden…
High Court of Madhya Pradesh · 2026 SCC OnLine MP 5790
Section 498A · 31 Mar 2026
The wife initiated a criminal complaint alleging cruelty and dowry harassment against her in-laws after an unexplained delay of nearly seven years following mat…
Supreme Court of India · 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 307 · PDF available
Section 498A · 29 Mar 2026
The husband had been convicted by the lower court under Section 498A IPC. He appealed to the High Court after battling litigation for 24 years, challenging the …
High Court at Calcutta · PDF available
Divorce · 28 Mar 2026
The wife lived separately without valid reason and initiated multiple groundless criminal proceedings against the husband and his family, causing him severe men…
High Court of Judicature at Madras · PDF available
Senior Citizens & Parents' Welfare · 23 Mar 2026
A senior citizen sought cancellation of a family property settlement deed that had been executed back in 2003, alleging neglect by the relatives who received th…
High Court of Judicature at Madras · 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 127 · PDF available
Maintenance, Alimony & Financial Support · 12 Mar 2026
The Family Court had awarded interim maintenance to a wife and her minor child, but directed that it be paid only from the date of its own order — leaving the c…
High Court of Delhi · 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 255 | CRL.REV.P. 520/2024 · PDF available
Section 498A · 10 Mar 2026
The wife lodged a criminal complaint alleging dowry harassment and cruelty, relying primarily on isolated instances of routine domestic disagreements and a sing…
Supreme Court of India · 2026 INSC 212 · PDF available
Section 498A · 27 Feb 2026
The couple dissolved their marriage in the United States, where the wife voluntarily accepted a monetary settlement and a divorce decree from a competent US cou…
High Court of Delhi · PDF available
Section 498A IPC — FIR Quashed · 20 Feb 2026
After matrimonial discord, a wife filed an FIR under Sections 498A, 504 and 34 IPC against her husband and his family. In seeking to have the FIR quashed, the h…
High Court of Judicature at Bombay (Nagpur Bench) · 2026 LiveLaw (Bom) 72; Criminal Application No. 1349 of 2024 · PDF available
Section 498A · 11 Feb 2026
Following matrimonial discord, the wife lodged an FIR under Section 498A IPC against her husband and arrayed his female friend/girlfriend as a co-accused for do…
High Court for the State of Telangana · PDF available
Divorce — Desertion and Unproven Infidelity Allegations · 10 Feb 2026
A husband sought divorce under Section 13(1)(b) of the Hindu Marriage Act on the ground of desertion, alleging that his wife was in an extra-marital relationshi…
High Court of Karnataka · 2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 58; Miscellaneous First Appeal No. 918 of 2021 · PDF available
Section 498A · 8 Feb 2026
An NRI technician working in Dubai faced an FIR under Section 85 BNS / Section 498A IPC. When he returned to India to attend maintenance proceedings, police ope…
High Court of Andhra Pradesh · PDF available
Adoption — Child Welfare Committee Inquiry · 5 Feb 2026
A child was abandoned at a Mutt when he was three days old, and the head of the Mutt gave him into the custody of a married couple in their fifties on 10 June 2…
High Court of Karnataka · 2026:KHC:6779; WP No. 18481 of 2021 · PDF available
Child Custody — Welfare and Other Factors · 4 Feb 2026
The parties, both Indian citizens, married in Srinagar in 2015 and lived in Qatar, where their two sons were born in 2017 and 2019. A Qatar family court granted…
Supreme Court of India · 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 115 · PDF available
Maintenance — Short Marriage & Quantum · 2 Feb 2026
The marriage between the parties lasted only about 57 days before the wife left the matrimonial home. She sought enhancement of her monthly maintenance from ₹8,…
High Court of Rajasthan (Jodhpur Bench) · 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 44 · PDF available
Section 498A · 1 Feb 2026
The wife had previously lodged an FIR alleging dowry harassment and matrimonial cruelty. Following earlier proceedings, she filed a second criminal complaint on…
High Court at Calcutta · 2026 LiveLaw (Cal) 29 · PDF available
Restitution of Conjugal Rights — Working Spouses · 31 Jan 2026
The parties married in March 2018; the wife was a private school teacher and the husband a daily-wage hospital worker. They lived together for only two to three…
High Court of Jharkhand · F.A. No. 274 of 2023 · PDF available
Section 498A · 30 Jan 2026
The complainant initiated criminal proceedings under Section 498A IPC for alleged domestic cruelty after the marriage had already been annulled and declared nul…
High Court of Kerala · 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 62 · PDF available
Maintenance Under Section 125 CrPC · 20 Jan 2026
A wife sought monthly maintenance under Section 125 CrPC, telling the court in her pleadings and affidavits that she had no income and was destitute. The husban…
High Court of Punjab and Haryana · PDF available
Section 498A · 19 Jan 2026
Following ordinary marital differences, the wife registered an FIR under Section 498A IPC invoking broad, generalised allegations against the husband and his re…
High Court of Karnataka
Maintenance — Enforcement Against Property Sold by Husband · 14 Jan 2026
A buyer purchased 5 cents of land in 2007 from a husband who was estranged from his wife. The wife had sued for maintenance, the property was attached in Novemb…
High Court of Kerala (Full Bench) · 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 29; 2026:KER:2410; ICR(Mat.A) No. 23 of 2025 in Mat.Appeal No. 1093 of 2014 · PDF available
Section 498A · 9 Dec 2025
The complainant alleged that her father-in-law expressed dissatisfaction about dowry and ignored her husband's extramarital affair, while her brother-in-law adv…
High Court of Judicature at Bombay · 2025 SCC OnLine Bom 5663 (Reported January 06, 2026)
Child Custody — Father's Claim, Proof of Paternity · 1 Dec 2025
The father married in June 2019 and the couple had a son, but the mother died of cardiac arrest shortly after the birth. The child was thereafter kept by his ma…
High Court of Orissa · 2025 LiveLaw (Ori) 161; GUAP No. 03 of 2022 · PDF available
Divorce — Mental Cruelty · 20 Nov 2025
A husband sought divorce on the ground of cruelty, alleging that his wife had insisted on living separately from his elderly parents, demanded a house be put in…
High Court of Delhi · 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1559 · PDF available
Domestic Violence Act — Shared Household Is Not Ownership · 25 Aug 2025
A mother-in-law had obtained a decree for possession of a property against her daughter-in-law, after a trial court found — on the strength of an unchallenged p…
High Court of Delhi · 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1016 · PDF available
Divorce · 1 Jul 2025
Following marital separation, the wife addressed several derogatory and defamatory complaints to the husband's employer levelling unsubstantiated allegations to…
High Court of Delhi · MAT.APP.(F.C.) 160 of 2025 | 2025 SCC OnLine Del 5073
Divorce — Mental Cruelty · 11 Jun 2025
The parties married in June 2016. The husband, who has a physical disability, alleged that from early in the marriage the wife repeatedly ridiculed his conditio…
High Court of Orissa (Cuttack) · 2025 LiveLaw (Ori) 76; MATA No. 264 of 2023 · PDF available
Section 498A IPC — Omnibus Allegations · 4 Jun 2025
The complainant, a Delhi Police sub-inspector, married Ghanshyam Soni in 1998. She alleged that soon after marriage her husband and his family, including his mo…
Supreme Court of India · 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 676; 2025 INSC 803 · PDF available
Section 498A IPC — Cruelty & Quashing · 8 Jan 2025
Following marital discord and non-consummation of the marriage, the wife registered an FIR under Section 498A IPC alleging cruelty on the ground of her husband'…
High Court of Judicature at Bombay · 2025 LiveLaw (Bom) 10 · PDF available
Divorce — Mental Cruelty · 24 Sept 2024
A couple married in 1992 ran into difficulties within two years, and the wife left the matrimonial home in 1995 to live with her parents. After reconciliation e…
High Court of Judicature at Allahabad · 2024:AHC:137694-DB · PDF available
Stridhan, Family Property & Criminal Breach of Trust · 29 Aug 2024
After matrimonial discord, the father of a married woman lodged an FIR under Section 406 IPC against his son-in-law and in-laws seeking recovery of Stridhan art…
Supreme Court of India · 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 641 | 2024 INSC 641 · PDF available
Section 498A IPC — Repeat FIR After Acquittal · 28 May 2023
A woman had filed an FIR in 2016 under Section 498A IPC against her husband and his relatives, alleging physical and mental torture going back to 2011 and that …
High Court at Calcutta · 2023 LiveLaw (Cal) 142 · PDF available
Maintenance — Landmark Guidelines · 4 Nov 2020
The wife had filed an application for interim maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for herself and the couple's minor son. The Family…
Supreme Court of India · Criminal Appeal No. 730 of 2020 (arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 9503 of 2018); (2021) AIR SC 569 · PDF available
Section 498A — Territorial Jurisdiction · 9 Apr 2019
The case arose from conflicting judicial views on a recurring procedural question: where a woman alleges cruelty by her husband or his relatives at the matrimon…
Supreme Court of India · 2019 INSC 480; AIR 2019 SC 1790 · PDF available
Adultery — Section 497 IPC Struck Down · 27 Sept 2018
A public interest petition was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging the constitutional validity of Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which…
Supreme Court of India · AIR 2018 SC 4898 · PDF available
Marital Rape Exception — Minor Wives · 11 Oct 2017
A registered NGO filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which excluded sexu…
Supreme Court of India · (2017) 10 SCC 800; AIR 2017 SC 4904 · PDF available
Mutual Consent Divorce — Cooling-Off Period · 12 Sept 2017
The parties sought a divorce by mutual consent under Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, which requires a minimum interval of six months (and up to eighteen …
Supreme Court of India · (2017) 8 SCC 746; AIR 2017 SC 4417 · PDF available
Triple Talaq — Constitutional Validity · 22 Aug 2017
The petitioner's marriage was dissolved by her husband through an instant, unilateral pronouncement of talaq-e-biddat ("triple talaq"), a form of divorce under …
Supreme Court of India · (2017) 9 SCC 1 · PDF available
Guardianship — Unwed Mother as Sole Guardian · 6 Jul 2015
An unmarried woman, who had raised her son from birth without any involvement or support from the child's biological father, applied under the Guardians and War…
Supreme Court of India · 2015 SCC OnLine SC 609 · PDF available
Arrest Guidelines — Section 498A Cases · 2 Jul 2014
The appellant, apprehending arrest in a case registered under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (cruelty by a husband or his relatives) and Section 4 of the…
Supreme Court of India · (2014) 8 SCC 273; AIR 2014 SC 2756 · PDF available
Maintenance — Muslim Women Under Section 125 · 4 Dec 2009
The parties married under Muslim personal law at Gwalior in 2001. The wife later left the matrimonial home, alleging cruelty and dowry demands, and filed an app…
Supreme Court of India · (2010) 1 SCC 666; AIR 2010 SC 305 · PDF available
Muslim Women's Maintenance — Constitutional Validity · 28 Sept 2001
Following the political and legal controversy that arose after an earlier Supreme Court maintenance ruling involving a Muslim woman, Parliament enacted the Musl…
Supreme Court of India · (2001) 7 SCC 740; AIR 2001 SC 3958 · PDF available
Guardianship — Mother as Natural Guardian · 17 Feb 1999
The petitioner applied to the Reserve Bank of India for relief bonds to be issued in the name of her minor son, seeking to be recognised as his natural guardian…
Supreme Court of India · (1999) 2 SCC 228 · PDF available
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These summaries explain what a court held in a specific matter, on its specific facts. They are not legal advice and cannot tell you how a court will rule in your matter — that depends on facts only an advocate who has read your file can weigh. MyCaseFile is not a law firm.
