Housewife cannot be made accused in DA case: Orissa HC

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has quashed criminal proceedings initiated against a housewife for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to her husband’s known source of income.
The court said that a housewife cannot be made an accused in a disproportionate assets case just because she has some assets in her name. The state vigilance had registered a case of disproportionate assets under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the husband as the main accused.
Since the wife was made an accused in the case, she had challenged the entire criminal proceedings initiated against her for allegedly abetting the crime committed by her husband.
Dismissing the case registered against her pending in the court of Special Judge, Vigilance on Wednesday, a single judge bench of Justice Sibo Shankar Mishra said, “Ordinarily, it is the natural course of action that an unemployed wife remains dependent on the perpetual will. ” Her working husband.
The judge said, “The main accused (husband) is in a position and capacity to dominate the will of the petitioner (wife). Thus, in such a situation, there is no scope for the petitioner to deny her husband’s desire to participate in the purchase of movable or immovable property.”
The judge said that the immovable properties are included in the disproportionate assets of the main accused and the petitioner is not claiming that she has independently acquired the said assets in her name. “Therefore, the onus is on the main accused to prove the source of income from which the property was acquired in the name of his wife,” the judge said in the March 6 order.