The High Court of Karnataka has quashed a criminal case filed by a woman against her husband in Bengaluru. The complaint accused the husband of cruelty for stopping her from eating French fries, rice, and meat after delivering a child in the U.S. The court called the complaint an “abuse of process of law” under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Justice M. Nagaprasanna noted that the police registered the FIR without a preliminary inquiry, violating Supreme Court guidelines. The court also criticized the police for issuing a Look-Out Circular (LOC) preventing the husband from returning to his job in the U.S. The man, Abuzar A., and his family challenged the complaint filed in 2024 about incidents in 2020. The court found the allegations were about marital disputes, such as food habits, clothes, household duties, and TV preferences. It said these do not meet the legal definition of cruelty under Section 498A. The court added that naming the husband’s parents and brother-in-law was unfair since they lived in India and were not involved. Citing Supreme Court rulings, the judge warned against turning marriage conflicts into criminal cases targeting the entire family. "To permit the present criminal process to lumber forward would be to allow law to become a weapon rather than a remedy," the court said. The court concluded that continuing the investigation would only cause harassment and waste court time. The wife had claimed the husband did not allow certain foods post-delivery, did not buy clothes for her, made her do all the housework, and caused physical and mental pain, all of which the husband denied. The court allowed Abuzar to travel to the U.S. for work in August 2024, ending the case in his favor.