Section 4: Married woman's right to prosecute
Statutory text (Thai original)
ในคดีอาญาซึ่งผู้เสียหายเป็นหญิงมีสามี หญิงนั้นมีสิทธิฟ้องคดีได้เอง โดยมิต้องได้รับอนุญาตของสามีก่อนภายใต้บังคับแห่งมาตรา ๕
(๒) สามีมีสิทธิฟ้องคดีอาญาแทนภริยาได้ ต่อเมื่อได้รับอนุญาตโดยชัดแจ้งจากภริยา
English translation
In a criminal case where the injured person is a married woman, that woman has the right to prosecute the case herself without first obtaining her husband's permission, subject to Section 5.
(2) The husband has the right to prosecute a criminal case on behalf of his wife only when he has been expressly authorized by the wife.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 4 sits among the general provisions on who may act as an injured person, alongside Sections 3, 5 and 6. It confirms a married woman's independent standing to prosecute, subject only to Section 5, and limits a husband to acting for his wife under an express authorization. Read together with Section 3, it defines one category of representative capacity, and courts treat the list of authorized representatives in Sections 4, 5 and 6 as closed.
Why this matters in practice
In practice, a wife does not need her husband's sign-off to press criminal charges, but a husband who wants to act for his wife should hold clear, express authority in writing. This matters most for compounding or settling, where courts have refused to treat a spouse's signature as a valid act for the other spouse without proper authority under Sections 4, 5 and 6.
Cited in 54 Supreme Court decisions (1942 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2802/2567 (2024)
- Decision 13535/2553 (2010)
- Decision 2208/2552 (2009)
- Decision 7471/2551 (2008)
- Decision 4146/2550 (2007)
- Decision 8822/2547 (2004)
- Decision 1305/2547 (2004)
- Decision 9275/2544 (2001)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Thai Penal Code s. 91 19
- Section 5 18
- Section 6 17
- Thai Penal Code s. 78 14
- Section 2 11
- Thai Penal Code s. 83 10
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Does a married woman need her husband's permission to file a criminal case in Thailand?
No. Under Section 4, a married woman who is the injured person may prosecute in her own name without her husband's prior consent, subject to Section 5.
Can a husband file a criminal case for his wife?
Only with her express authorization. Section 4 allows a husband to prosecute on his wife's behalf only when she has clearly authorized him to do so.
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 4 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 4. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-4/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 4 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-4/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-4/"><p>In a criminal case where the injured person is a married woman, that woman has the right to prosecute the case herself without first obtaining her husband's permission, subject to Section 5. (2) The husband has the right to prosecute a criminal case on behalf…</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 4 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-4/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.