Section 498A IPC is now Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, with the explanation of cruelty in Section 86, in force from 1 July 2024. The offence is cognizable and non-bailable and carries up to three years with fine. The renumbering did not change the substance, and the case law built on 498A continues to apply.
- A certified copy of the FIR, and every section invoked read against the maximum sentence
- Anticipatory bail considered on day one, not after the first summons
- Every message, email and call log with the complainant and her family, preserved unedited
- Financial records showing what was given, spent and transferred, with dates
- Photographs and video of the wedding and of the matrimonial home
- Names of neighbours, relatives and colleagues who can speak to the living arrangements
- Any earlier civil or matrimonial proceeding, and its dates, since sequence often matters
What to do in the first week
- Take a decision on anticipatory bail under Section 482 BNSS before the Sessions Court, and take it before you are called for questioning. Applying after an arrest is a materially worse position.
- Get a certified copy of the FIR and read who has been named. These complaints frequently name the entire family, including relatives living in other cities. Who is named, and what specific act is attributed to each of them, decides who has a quashing case and who has to face trial.
- Stop all direct contact with the complainant and her family. Every message becomes an exhibit, and an approach is readily characterised as an attempt to influence a witness.
- Preserve the evidence that fixes dates and places: messages, call detail records, photographs with their metadata, travel and employment records, rent agreements, anything that establishes where each person actually lived and when. Omnibus allegations usually collapse on the question of who was even present.
What actually happens procedurally
Under Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, for offences punishable with up to seven years the police must not arrest mechanically. The officer has to record reasons, and the Section 35 BNSS notice procedure applies, directing you to appear rather than taking you into custody. Appear, cooperate and keep the acknowledgement. Failing to comply with that notice is what turns a no-arrest case into an arrest.
Matrimonial complaints are also commonly routed through a conciliation or family welfare step before any arrest. That window is worth using seriously, because a settlement reached at this stage costs a fraction of one reached after a chargesheet.
Why courts scrutinise these cases
- Courts have repeatedly criticised omnibus allegations sweeping in elderly parents and married sisters living elsewhere with no specific act attributed to them. Quashing petitions for those relatives succeed reasonably often.
- The distinction drawn is between a specific, dated, attributed act of cruelty and a general assertion that the accused harassed the complainant. The second is what fails.
- A parallel dowry allegation usually accompanies the complaint. What that adds, and what has to be proved, is set out in our note on dowry law in India.
Publicly declaring the case false, on social media or anywhere else, tends to hurt. It can attract its own proceedings and it hands the other side material. Fight it in the court file, not online.
The realistic path
Anticipatory bail first. Then a considered choice between a quashing petition under Section 528 BNSS before the High Court for relatives named without any specific allegation, and a defence built for trial where the allegations are specific and have to be met on evidence. Where the marriage is genuinely over, most of these matters end in a comprehensive settlement that includes quashing by consent. The wider set of remedies, including what you can do about a complaint that is fabricated, is in our note on being falsely accused of a crime.