In a recent ruling, the Bombay High Court said that human teeth are not a dangerous weapon and dismissed a police complaint made by a woman against her in-laws, in which she said her sister-in-law bit her.
The case started from an FIR lodged in April 2020 by a woman who claimed that, during a scuffle, her sister-in-law bit her, thereby causing injury with a “dangerous weapon.”
Based on the complaint, the accused were charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for using dangerous weapons, causing hurt, and inflicting injury.
However, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Sanjay Deshmukh, held that the charges under IPC Section 324 (causing hurt using a dangerous weapon) were not applicable in this case.
“Human teeth cannot be said to be a dangerous weapon,” the court said in its April 4 order, noting that medical records submitted by the complainant only confirmed “simple hurt caused by teeth marks.”
Section 324 of the IPC applies when the injury is caused using an instrument that is likely to cause death or serious harm. The court observed that this threshold was not met and continuing with the trial would be “an abuse of the process of law.”
Acknowledging the accused’s plea, the court quashed the FIR, adding that there appeared to be a property dispute between the complainant and the accused.
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