{"id":3058,"date":"2026-01-16T14:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/?p=3058"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:00:07","slug":"decree-of-divorce-section-498a-of-the-indian-penal-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/decree-of-divorce-section-498a-of-the-indian-penal-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Decree of Divorce | Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Decree of Divorce | Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Can a complaint under S. 498A<\/a> Indian Penal Code be made after a decree of divorce has been obtained?<\/strong><\/p>

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The answer to this is simply NO. When a complainant approaches with a case under S.498A long after the divorce has been granted by a court of law, S.498A will not be attracted.<\/em><\/p>

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Where the complainant approaches with a case that there has been a divorce long back i.e. years ago before filing of the FIR<\/a><\/strong>, section 498A of IPC in terms would not be attracted.<\/em><\/p>

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Prosecution under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, will not be maintainable when the complained is lodged long after the divorce has been granted.<\/em><\/p>

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A common question most complainants ask is why their complaints are not maintainable if filed after a decree of divorce is obtained?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>

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Firstly, there are obvious limitations i.e., time periods for filing a particular case which varies depending on the nature of the case.<\/em><\/p>

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Secondly, these complaints should not be entertained as people would abuse the provision under the IPC to cause undue and unnecessary harassment to their ex-partners.<\/em><\/p>

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Finally, if such a case exists under Section 498-A IPC; it does not make any sense for the complainant to wait for years altogether to go through with the complaint. Upon consulting a lawyer, they would advise you to prefer a police complaint instead of prolonging the complaint and losing the maintainability of the case.<\/em><\/p>

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Moreover, the courts have stated that:<\/em><\/p>

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\u2026. \u201cSection 498A of the IPC opens with the words \u201cWhoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman\u2026.\u201d Therefore, where the complainant approaches with a case that there has been a divorce long back i.e. four years ago before filing of the FIR, section 498A of IPC in terms would not be attracted. We accordingly consider it appropriate to quash the prosecution against all the accused persons under section 498A of IPC and Sections 3\/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

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References:<\/strong> Mohammad Miyan vs. State of Uttar Pradesh <\/strong><\/p>

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Author –
Rahul J Krishnan<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Decree of Divorce | Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code Can a complaint under S. 498A Indian Penal Code be made after a decree of divorce has been obtained? The answer to this is simply NO. When a complainant approaches with a case under S.498A long after the divorce has been granted by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-law"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8396,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions\/8396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omnia-digital.com\/merlyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}