If a married woman is asked to do household work for the family, it cannot be equated to the work of a house help and would not amount to cruelty, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court said while quashing a case lodged by a woman against her estranged husband and his parents for domestic violence and cruelty.

A division bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Rajesh Patil on October 21 quashed the First Information Report lodged against the man and his parents. The woman had alleged she was was treated properly for a month after marriage, but thereafter, they began treating her like a “maid servant”.