LUCKNOW, Aug. 15 -- The Allahabad high court has held that a man calling his wife a "barren woman" during a quarrel over childlessness and exchange of abuses between them would not constitute cruelty under IPC Section 498-A. Justice Indrajeet Shukla passed the order on August 13 on the petition filed by the husband challenging a Lucknow court order that had summoned him on a complaint alleging cruelty, dowry demand and intentional insult. Criminal proceedings were quashed against him under Sections 498-A (cruelty by husband or relatives), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Sections 3/4 (giving or taking dowry and demanding dowry) of the Dowry Prohibition Act. The case arose from a troubled marriage in which the couple had been unable to have a child. During the dispute, the husband and his relatives allegedly called the woman a "barren woman", while she, in turn, called her husband "impotent". The high court noted that the alleged remarks had to be viewed in the context of the matrimonial discord and the exchange of offensive language between both sides. It observed that the husband's alleged reference to his wife as a "barren woman", though "insensitive and reprehensible", could not by itself constitute cruelty under Section 498-A of the IPC in the circumstances of the case....