Court case(2004) 3 SCC 199

Reema Aggarwal married Anupam in 1998; it was the second marriage for both. She alleged that he and his parents and brother harassed her for insufficient dowry and that on one occasion she was forced to consume poison. Proceedings under ss. 307 and 498A IPC were quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the ground that, as Anupam's first marriage was subsisting, Reema was not his legally wedded wife and he was not her "husband", so s. 498A could not apply.

The Supreme Court set aside the quashing order and directed the trial to proceed. Reading ss. 498A and 304B purposively, the Court held that "husband" covers a person who enters into a marital relationship under the colour of a feigned status of husband and then subjects the woman to cruelty or coerces her for dowry. A man who deceives a woman into a second marriage cannot use the legal invalidity of that marriage as a shield, for no one may take advantage of his own wrong. The absence of a definition of "husband" in the IPC and the reference to "dowry" do not restrict the sections to valid marriages.