The Delhi HC judgment of Jul 2014 that a woman has no right to in-laws’ self-acquired property under Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) has got the stamp of approval of the Supreme court as per this recent news. Woman has no claim on in-laws’ property: SC In a recent order, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Uday Umesh Lalit also put an end to years of fighting between the woman, her in-laws and her husband by granting the couple divorce. To safeguard the rights of the single mother and her two children, SC ordered the husband to provide alternate accommodation/property in her name and pay monthly maintenance. However the judges made it clear, she will get possession of the flat only on vacating the father-in-law's property. The last line above is quite interesting in that it has put a … [Read more...] about Supreme Court denies Delhi woman a claim on in-laws’ property
DV Act Judgments
Chennai HC exhorts magistrates to award lumpsum amounts at interim orders under DV Act
CHENNAI: The Madras high court has said women, who are victims of domestic violence, must be paid decent monetary assistance for food, shelter, health and education at every stage of proceedings under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Pay-maintenance-to-domestic-violence-victims-Madras-HC-says/articleshow/46438296.cms The 120-page verdict is sure to light up lives of thousands of women fighting domestic violence cases against their spouses, as it provides for maintenance and compensation for almost every conceivable aspect of a married woman's life, ranging from food and shelter to health and loss of income. Whatever verdict is supposed to lights up the lives of citizens, the judiciary will make sure to adjourn and give … [Read more...] about Chennai HC exhorts magistrates to award lumpsum amounts at interim orders under DV Act
Interim relief under DV Act cannot be granted without conducting inquiry as per CrPC summons case – Karnataka HC
The linked judgment below of Karnataka High Court below says that if the order under PWDVA (Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005) is not an ex-parte order, then even to grant interim relief to the petitioner (wife), the court must conduct an inquiry as would be required in a CrPC summary trial, that is, summons case. This means that husband will be allowed to give his basic evidence etc and any order will be passed only after that. The judgment is available only in scanned PDF format, so text cannot be extracted. Link to PDF below: Krishna Murthy Nookula vs Y Savitha - Karnataka HC Judgment (PDF) Case Number: CRL.RP 815/2009 Judge(s): JAWAD RAHIM Petitioners: KRISHNAMURTHY NOOKULA Respondents: SAVITHA Y Date of Judgment: 9-Dec-2009 Bench: … [Read more...] about Interim relief under DV Act cannot be granted without conducting inquiry as per CrPC summons case – Karnataka HC
No monetary relief under Section 20 of DV Act (PWDVA) unless domestic violence proved – Mumbai HC
I think this is a very important judgment about grant of any kind of monetary relief including maintenance to wives under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence act. It says that unless the domestic violence alleged in the complaint is proven, no relief can be granted under Section 20 of the DV Act which grants monetary relief. So bye bye to those complaints where wife says “I was not given food”, “I was locked in the bathroom” and the standard template of DV allegations. Let them prove their allegations, or find a real job rather than filing cases on husbands and living life like parasites! Note that this was on disposal of the main DV petition, so even if interim monetary relief is granted, keep fighting the main petition and get your maintenance amount to zero. Important … [Read more...] about No monetary relief under Section 20 of DV Act (PWDVA) unless domestic violence proved – Mumbai HC
Shared household under DV Act clarified in 2006 SC judgment
Domestic Violence or DV Act (Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act), 2005 was passed by parliament in Aug 2005 and came into force on 26 Oct 2006. The act comes into force when it is notified in a gazette etc, not just when it is passed by parliament. This old SC judgment of S R Batra vs Taruna Batra case below about what constitutes rights of a wife to live in husband/in-laws house is from Dec 2006 which is just 2 months after DV act came into force. But this judgment is very important since even today there is lot of misunderstanding about rights of a woman on her husband/in-laws house/property. This is especially true of North India or Delhi/NCR region where asking for property/house/plot as a ‘settlement’ in marital dispute is a time-tested strategy being … [Read more...] about Shared household under DV Act clarified in 2006 SC judgment
Wife not entitled to stay in or claim her father-in-law’s house using DV Act
Delhi is well-known, or shall we say notorious, for property disputes filed by women against in-laws, under the garb of Domestic Violence Act (DV Act) etc. There have been many judgments in the past including the well-known SC judgment of Batra vs Batra which clarified that mother-in-law’s house couldn’t be claimed to be shared household under DV Act by daughter-in-law. In this recent Delhi HC judgment, the high court has rejected claim of a 498a/DV wife (what else do we call them!) who had forcibly entered and was staying in few rooms of her father-in-law’s house. The house was in father-in-law’s name and acquired from his own funds. This judgment has referred to Batra vs Batra SC judgment as well as other judgments of Delhi high court related to woman’s claim to in-laws property, … [Read more...] about Wife not entitled to stay in or claim her father-in-law’s house using DV Act