New Delhi : It was payback time for a husband and his family, whose greed was not satiated by Rs 18 lakh in dowry and who continued to torture the wife mentally and physically to squeeze out another Rs 10 lakh and a plot from her parents.

They learnt their lesson the hard way, with the Supreme Court directing them to pay Rs 40 lakh to the wife and her family and tender a public apology before the Aggarwal Sabha. After this, a divorce would be granted by mutual consent.

Shilpa's marriage to Abhinav in July 2007 was a typical one — with exchange of lavish gifts even before the actual ceremony. The boy's parents took Rs 18 lakh — Rs 10 lakh to buy a Toyota Innova car ostensibly in the name of the bride in which she would arrive in her new matrimonial home and Rs 8 lakh for other expenses.

But, the moment Shilpa stepped into her husband's house, the demands started increasing — Rs 10 lakh more and transfer of title of a plot standing in her father's name to the father-in-law's name.

She was allegedly poisoned and sexually harassed by the inlaws in addition to being tortured. She filed several police complaints while the husband moved for divorce. The Aggarwal Sabha tried to bring about peace within the family.It failed and after a lot of litigation, both parties reached a settlement and approached the SC Lok Adalat, which approved the settlement and passed the order.

The terms of the settlement clearly pointed towards the guilt of the husband's family, for they agreed that “Abhinav, his parents, his brother and bhabi and his two maternal uncles would appear before the Aggarwal Sabha and acknowledge the wrongs committed against Shilpa”.

And it came with a stern warning from a bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, R V Raveendran and V S Sirpurkar: “In case any of these seven persons fails to appear before the Sabha, Shilpa can revive her complaints.”

The bench added, “The husband and the father-in-law, Ashok Gupta, will pay Rs 40 lakh within two months by demand draft at Bhiwani in the name of Shilpa. The husband, father-in-law and other five persons will appear before Aggarwal Sabha, Prashant Vihar, Delhi , within one month from today and apologise in writing to the girl and her family members.” Once these things were complied with by the husband and his family members, the marriage between the parties — Shilpa and Abhinav —would be dissolved by mutual consent, it said.

All criminal cases, complaints and FIRs lodged by both the parties would be quashed, the court said, signalling an honourable exit for Shilpa woman from a wretched marriage.