A woman who is forced to leave her matrimonial home to escape cruelty by her in-laws can have her case tried by courts in the place where she is forced to take shelter, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. This marks a radical shift in the existing procedure — earlier, such a case could only be tried by courts within whose jurisdiction the crime was committed. A bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices L Nageswara Rao and Sanjay Kishan Kaul came to the conclusion after interpreting that cruelty in the matrimonial home does not end there and has an impact on the women even after they take shelter in their parental home. “Cruelty can be both physical or mental cruelty. The impact on the mental health of the wife by overt acts on the part of the husband or his relatives; the mental stress and trauma of being driven away from the matrimonial home, and her helplessness to go back to the same home for fear of being ill-treated are aspects that cannot be ignored while understanding the meaning of the expression ‘cruelty’ appearing in Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The emotional distress or psychological effect on the wife, if not the physical injury, is bound to continue to traumatise the wife even after she leaves the matrimonial home and takes shelter at the parental home,” the CJI said. “Even if the acts of physical cruelty committed in the matrimonial house may have ceased and such acts do not occur at the parental home, there can be no doubt that the mental trauma and the psychological distress cause by the acts of the husband including verbal exchanges, if any, that had compelled the wife to leave the matrimonial home… Adverse effects on the mental health in the parental home though on account of the acts committed in the matrimonial home would, in our considered view, amount to commission of cruelty within the meaning of Section 498A at the parental home,” the bench ruled.