Bhubaneswar/ New Delhi, June 15:The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Odisha government and other parties on a petition filed by former MP and Odia actor Anubhav Mohanty challenging criminal proceedings initiated against him and his family by his former wife, Barsha Priyadarshini ( Actress), in a matrimonial dispute.
A Bench comprising Justices Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi issued notice on Mohanty’s Special Leave Petition (SLP), which challenges the January 30, 2026 judgment of the Orissa High Court refusing to discharge him from the case.
Senior advocates R.D. Singh and Divya Tripathi appeared on behalf of Mohanty, while the petition was filed through Advocate-on-Record Ashish Choudhury.
The case stems from FIR No. 276/2020 registered at Purighat Police Station in Cuttack, wherein offences under Sections 498-A, 506, 341, and other provisions of the IPC were invoked against Mohanty and his family members. Both Mohanty and his former wife, Barsha Priyadarshini, a prominent figure in the Odia film industry, were married in 2014.
According to the petition, the marriage was never consummated and eventually broke down. Mohanty stated that he had filed for divorce before the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi in July 2020, following which multiple legal proceedings, including a domestic violence complaint and police cases, were initiated against him.
Before the apex court, Mohanty contended that the criminal proceedings were launched with an ulterior motive to harass him and his family. The plea describes the allegations as vague, baseless and lacking specific evidence, arguing that the matter is essentially matrimonial in nature.
“The criminal law has been invoked as a tool of harassment in what is fundamentally a civil and matrimonial dispute,” the petition states. Mohanty has also alleged that the investigating officer failed to consider material submitted by him and mechanically added offences while filing the charge sheet.
The plea cites subsequent developments in related cases, including a divorce decree granted by the Orissa High Court in December 2023 on grounds of cruelty and non-consummation of marriage. It also refers to an April 2025 order in which a magistrate court dismissed the domestic violence complaint filed by his former wife, observing that allegations of abuse were not substantiated by evidence.
Mohanty further argued that the High Court dismissed his revision petition without adequately examining the ingredients of the alleged offences or the evidence on record. He has sought quashing of the criminal proceedings arising out of the 2020 FIR and requested an interim stay on the trial court proceedings.
After hearing the matter, the Supreme Court issued notice to the respondents and will take up the case again after their replies are filed.
