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As we have discussed briefly, the Statement of Objects and Reasons at beginning of DV Act mentions about protecting women/wives from violence in homes, allowing them to file complaints against both male partner/husband and his relatives, mentions right to residence for women, and mentions about protection officers and NGOs as service providers.
It doesn't mention about maintenance at all. So why do people who receive a summons in a DV case are asked to pay maintenance to wife, and amounts asked are like 1 lakh per month when husband's salary may not be more than 40,000 per month? Because all those clauses about maintenance are part of the actual sections of DV Act which we haven't gone through yet. But these have NOT been mentioned in the statement of objects and reasons, but are the most often used weapons by the domestic violence and divorce industry against husbands and their parents. It is a convenient way to hide the real intention of the law which gives one more channel to women to seek maintenance, hiding behind allegations of domestic violence. Most of the lawmakers do not actually read the full text of proposed bill, and if they had gone through the statement of objects and reasons, they would assume it's about protecting women from domestic violence and ensuring shelter to abla-naaris (helpless women), so it must be all for good. With more celebrities facing DV cases and huge maintenance demands that go with them, hopefully the general public will wake up to the reality too that the DV act is just a convenient way to ask for huge maintenance and luxuries. Or maybe the general public will still keep sleeping, because each person learns from their own experience rather than from others'.
CrPC 125 doesn't mention domestic violence specifically, it just says that if a woman stays away from husband and she can prove it is on just grounds, then she can be entitled to maintenance. The whole idea behind CrPC 125 was to prevent destitution of women and children who may be abandoned by husbands or in-laws. It did not go into fine details like verbal abuse, economic abuse, and so on. The DV Act on the other hand is an aggressive tool for unscrupulous women, to make false domestic violence allegations and then demand high maintenance amounts. I don't have exact statistics but my gut feel based on calls received is that more CrPC 125 cases are being filed in smaller towns, but DV cases are the weapons of choice in big cities. The reason could be simply that the 'knowledge' about these advanced weapons hasn't yet percolated down to the advocates in smaller towns. Or it could be that the advocates there suggest to file a CrPC 125 case, because suggesting stronger cases like DV Act, will probably lead to stronger allegations and divorce faster; and the advocates feel it's too mercenary an approach even if it gets them the legal fees. I am not trying to exonerate the role of advocates in spreading the 'knowledge', but we cannot blame them as the root cause either because the root cause are the feminist/matriarchal families which encourage their daughters to file cases on in-laws.
So bottom line is that if you are facing only CrPC 125 case from wife without very strong DV allegations, then your wife/in-laws are taking a slow approach trying to test the waters at each stage. If they file a DV Act complaint however with strong allegations like "husband is violent, impotent, abused me sexually, has girlfriend etc", then expect a more vigorous approach from the opposite party. There is no guarantee ever that they may not file 498A later, but CrPC 125 case usually means they want to beat you with a wooden stick covered with cloth; and DV case usually means they want to beat with an iron rod. Intention is the same, the difference is only in degree.
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