Soni Satti
The Delhi High Court in a recent case matter of Laishram Premila Devi & Ors. v. The State & Ors. observed that filing fake cases of sexual harassment “is becoming a trend” now to force a Party to Withdraw Complaint and “Such allegations have the effect of tarnishing the image of the person against whom such allegations are made,”
The FIR filed in this case alleged that the accused have committed act of sexual harassment and has outraged the modesty of the complainant. Later on, the parties compromised and decided to settled their dispute and approached the court for quashing the FIRs.
Justice Subramonium Prasad in the order stated,
“The instant case is a classic example as to how frivolous allegations of Section 354 and 354A have been levelled by the parties against each other. A small fight regarding parking has been escalated by levelling allegation of outraging modesty of women.”
He added,
“Offences under Sections 354, 354A, 354B, 354C, 354D IPC are serious offences. Such allegations have the effect of tarnishing the image of the person against whom such allegations are made. Allegations regarding these offences cannot be made at the drop of a hat,”.
The court while disposing of the petition, imposed an amount of Rs. 30,000 on the petitioners forwasting the valuable time of the police forces in investigating the frivolous cases and called this practice as an abuse of the process of law.
