The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has quashed the conviction of a man and his family who were accused of not allowing his wife to watch television, visit a temple, meet neighbours and force her to sleep on a carpet. The Bombay High Court held that the charges of taunting the deceased, not allowing her to watch television, not allowing her to go to a temple alone and making her sleep on a carpet would not amount to the offence of cruelty under Section 498A of the IPC as none of these acts were "serious", reports Live Law.

According to a report by Live Law, a single bench of Justice Abhay S Waghwase said that the above act against the woman, who is now dead, would not be considered "grave" under the offence of cruelty under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The court said that the charges would not include physical and mental cruelty as they were related to the domestic affairs of the accused.

The court also rejected this allegation. 

The court also rejected the allegation of the woman's family members that she was forced to fetch water at midnight, while the man's family said that the water supply starts at that time in their village and all the houses go to fetch water at 1.30 am.

Earlier, he was convicted in the trial. 

Earlier, a trial court had convicted the man and his family for the ill-treatment which led to the woman's suicide on May 1, 2002. "There is a gap of about two months since the deceased, the complainant and the witnesses met each other. They (the mother, uncle and aunt of the deceased) have admitted that there was no communication either in writing or verbally from the deceased, she has not stated that there was any case of cruelty at the time of the suicide. There is no evidence to show that at that relevant point or in any proximity to the time of the suicide, there was any demand, cruelty or ill-treatment which could connect them with the suicidal death. What prompted the suicide remains a mystery," the high court said.