Legal Reference Library

The Supreme Court, in Samir Vidyasagar Bhardwaj vs Nandita Samir Bhardwaj, has upheld an interim order by a family court in Maharashtra, which directed a husband to remove himself from his own home and not to visit there until the divorce petition under challenge is finally decided. The apex court, on an appeal by the husband, observed that Section 19(1)(b) of the Protection of Women Domestic Violence Act provides that the court may direct the husband to remove himself from the shared household. Article referred: http://www.livelaw.in/sc-upholds-family-court-order-asking-husband-vacate-home-pendency-divorce-case/

The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed a criminal complaint u/s 498A, 323, 406 & 504 of the IPC and 12 of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, while exercising its powers under Section 482 CrPC, against the parents of the deceased husband due to want of specific instances of domestic violence. Speaking through Justice PK Vohra, the court was seized of a petition filed in 2011 against a complaint filed by a woman in 2010 seeking protection under the DV Act and punishment under IPC. The complainant had entered into a marital set-up with her husband in 1994 and had been living separate from the in-laws since 1995. The complaint filed by the complainant wife assailed the husband, his parents and her sister-in-law alleging vague domestic violence. The husband expired during the proceedings and the trial court proceeded against the other three. The high court held that the precise object of the Act of 2005 is to protect a woman against domestic violence and in appropriate cases, she is als...

The Rajasthan High Court in Geeta Singh vs. State of Rajasthan and Anr dismissed the DV application of Geeta Singh, filed under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 claiming interim monetary relief to her daughter Geetanjali. One of the reliefs sought is that respondent may be directed to pay 700 pounds per month as living expenditure as she was pursuing higher studies at Cardiff University, England. Geetanjali’s father contended he had borne all the school and college education expenses for his daughter and even took care of educational and all other expenses for her higher studies at Nottingham, England. The question involved was whether the unmarried daughter, who has already completed her post graduation from a reputed university in India like Delhi University and who also pursued her further studies at Nottingham, England, in 2009, is an aggrieved person within the meaning of the Act, and if yes, whether she can claim interim monetary relief as he...

The High Court of Orissa on Tuesday held that for maintaining proceedings under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, it is not necessary for the woman to have lived in a shared household with the accused at the time of making an application to the Magistrate. Justice S.K. Sahoo observed, “For subjecting a woman to any act of domestic violence as defined under section 3 of the P.W.D.V. Act and maintaining an application under section 12 of the P.W.D.V. Act, it is not necessary that the woman concerned must be living with the respondent under one roof or in a shared household at the time of presenting the application to the Magistrate.” The Court was hearing a challenge to an order passed in July this year by the Sessions Judge, Bhubaneswar, upholding the maintainability of the proceedings initiated by the wife under the DV Act. The maintainability of the proceedings were challenged, among other things, on the ground that th...

Observing that the ‘Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (PWDV) Act does not override personal laws completely’, a Delhi court has reduced the interim relief granted to a Muslim widow from Rs.30,000 to 15,000 per month. Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Bansal reduced the relief amount saying payment of the previous amount would amount to payment of maintenance, which is not permissible under the law. The widow had sought interim monetary relief from her father-in-law and brother-in-law ( jeth ) alleging that they tortured her and her three children physically and mentally, besides taking over her husband’s shop after his death. A Metropolitan Magistrate had earlier asked her in-laws to pay Rs. 30,000 per month to her as expenses for her children and herself. The in-laws, however, challenged the order before the Sessions Judge. “It is well settled that under Muslim Law there is no obligation upon the father-in-law to maintain the widow and children of his deceased son. The p...

In a landmark order, the Bombay High Court has ruled a woman can invoke criminal provisions of the Domestic Violence Act against female relatives of her husband. Hearing a plea filed by Mumbai resident Sachin Patil and his family, challenging the case filed by his estranged wife, especially against his mother and sister, Justice Ravindra Ghuge said the special law to tackle domestic violence can't be restricted only to the husband's male relatives. "Since the 2005 Act is aimed at protecting women, the submissions of Patil, if accepted, would create an insulation for the female members of the husband's family who may go unpunished for acts amounting to domestic violence," said Justice Ghuge, adding, "When specific allegations are made against the lady members of the husband's family like the mother-in-law, or the sister of the husband etc, the complainant can't be rendered remedy-less by precluding her from arraigning such female members who could be t...

Suspecting the wife’s fidelity and questioning her for moving about with almost every other person, including her father, also amounts to domestic violence, entitling the victim woman subjected to such “emotional abuse” to seek refuge under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, the Madras High Court Bench here has held. Further, rejecting the husband’s contention that he did not have the wherewithal to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, as ordered by a lower court, since he was unemployed, Justice P. Devadass said: “It is too dangerous to accept such a contention. If he has no job, he can work as a coolie and there is no wrong even in begging for feeding wife and children.” Stating that the term ‘domestic violence’ included physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse, the judge said: “In a domestic relationship, domestic violence is analogous to matrimonial cruelty. Domestic violence comprises physical as well as mental cruelty. Menta...