Allahabad High Court warns against criminalising failed marriages

The Allahabad High Court quashed a dowry harassment FIR and warned that routinely turning distressed marriages into criminal cases undermines the institution of marriage.

The bench reviewed a case involving a marriage solemnised on November 12, 2024, where cohabitation lasted about two and a half months before the wife left in February 2025.

The court clarified that matrimonial discord is not automatically criminality and that criminal proceedings cannot substitute adjudication before a matrimonial court.