: In a 150-page judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the wife has the right of residence in the shared family property and not just in the separate property of the husband. This is a verdict under the Domestic Violence Act.){kind=link}
New Delhi (ILNS): In a 150-page judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the wife has the right of residence in the shared family property and not just in the separate property of the husband. This is a verdict under the Domestic Violence Act.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan overturned the decision of a two-judge bench in the Tarun Batra case and said that “domestic violence in this country is rampant and several women encounter violence in some form or the other almost every day.This is the least reported form of cruel behavior. A woman resigns to her fate in the never ending cycle of enduring violence and discrimination as a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother,a partner or a single woman in her lifetime.
“This non-retaliation by women, coupled with the absence of laws addressing women’s issues, ignorance of the existing laws enacted for women and societal attitude makes women vulnerable. The reason why most cases of domestic violence are never reported is due to the social stigma of the society and the attitude of the women themselves, where women are expected to be subservient, not just to their male counterparts but also to the male’s relatives.”
The judgment was given in an appeal filed by Satish Chander Ahuja, questioning the judgment of the Delhi High Court dated 18.12.2019 in RFA No.381/2019 by which judgment the Delhi High Court set aside the decree granted in favour of the plaintiff dated 08.04.2019 under Order XII Rule 6 of Civil Procedure Code, decreeing the suit filed by the plaintiff for mandatory and permanent injunction.
The High Court after setting aside the decree of the Trial Court has remanded the matter back to the Trial Court for fresh adjudication in accordance with the directions given by the High Court. The plaintiff aggrieved by the judgment of the High Court has come up in this appeal.
This appeal raises important questions of law pertaining to the interpretation and working of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
The plaintiff has pleaded that the wife of the plaintiff has been subjected to various threats and violence in the hands of the defendant on several occasions. In the event, the suit is filed by the wife of the plaintiff against the defendant for permanent injection and also praying for reliefs under Section 19[except Section 19(1)(b)].
Earlier in the Tarun Batra case, a two-judge bench had said that the daughter-in-law, in law, cannot live in the property owned by her husband’s parents.
Read the judgment here;
Supreme-Court-DV-ILNS