Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has quashed an FIR lodged by a judicial officer against his doctor wife and two others, holding that the criminal proceedings were malicious and amounted to an abuse of the process of law.A division bench comprising Justice Rajiv Misra and Justice Dr Ajay Kumar II allowed a writ petition filed by the wife and two co-petitioners, setting aside the FIR that had been lodged in January 2026.The court relied on two key factors: the unexplained delay in filing the FIR and a contradiction between the allegations made in the complaint and the undisputed sequence of events on record.According to the FIR, the alleged incidents occurred on various dates between May 26, 2021, and November 18, 2025. However, the complaint did not specify the exact dates or times of the alleged occurrences. The principal allegation against the wife was that she had refused to cooperate in divorce proceedings unless she was paid Rs 1 crore.Challenging the FIR, the wife argued before the High Court that the complaint had been filed after an inordinate delay. Accepting the contention, the bench observed that the delay had not been satisfactorily explained.The court further found a fundamental inconsistency in the allegations. The wife pointed out that her husband had already obtained a divorce decree under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act. The Family Court had dissolved the marriage on September 8, 2025, whereas the FIR was filed more than four months later, on January 17, 2026.Taking note of this fact, the High Court questioned why the divorce decree, granted by a competent court in September 2025, had not been disclosed in the FIR. It observed that the allegations contained in the complaint were contrary to the record.In view of the divorce decree already having been granted, the court found the allegation that the wife was refusing to cooperate in the divorce proceedings unless paid Rs 1 crore to be inherently inconsistent.After considering both the unexplained delay and the contradiction regarding the divorce proceedings, the bench observed: “Impugned criminal proceedings have been engineered on account of an ulterior motive and for an extraneous consideration. As such, criminal prosecution of petitioners is not bona fide but malicious and also an abuse of the process of court.”The court consequently held that the criminal prosecution arising from the FIR could not be sustained either in law or on facts and quashed the proceedings.Earlier, the parties had been referred to the Mediation and Conciliation Centre of the Allahabad High Court after informing the court that the dispute was essentially private and matrimonial in nature. However, a mediation report dated June 20, 2026, recorded that no settlement had been reached between them.The High Court thereafter proceeded to examine the challenge on merits and, in its judgment dated July 27, allowed the writ petition and quashed the FIR.
