False complaint against spouse amounts to an act of cruelty: HC

Filing false complaints against one's spouse years after separation amounts to an act of cruelty, the Delhi high court has ruled, adding that such actions not only cause humiliation to a person, but can also lower their reputation in the community.

- Shruti Kakkar

"Making false allegations in a complaint filed after years of separation is again nothing but an act of vindictiveness to somehow not only harass the respondent but also cause embarrassment to him in public amounts to cruelty," said a bench led by justice Suresh Kumar Kait in a December 18 order.

The 19-page order further noted, "Various allegations were made in the complaint under Domestic Violence Act after separation (in mid-2001) which again were held to be acts which would result in humiliation and of the lower the reputation respondent (husband) in the community."