Domestic abuse case can be filed any time: Delhi HC

Delhi high court has said that a woman living separately from her husband before 2006, the year domestic violence law was enacted, can still seek relief under the law.

Justice VK Jain passed the judgment on a lawsuit by Ms Savita Bhanot. The woman had challenged a subordinate court’s order which said it couldn’t grant her relief under the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) since she had been living separately from her husband, Lt col (retd) VD Bhanot, before 2006.

Though the trial court had directed the husband to pay her maintenance and allow her to live in her matrimonial home or pay Rs10,000 for a rented house, her husband appealed against this order and an additional sessions judge held that Savita’s claim was maintainable since she had left the matrimonial home on July 4, 2005, and the Act had come into force on October 26, 2006.
Allowing Ms Bhanot’s appeal, the court underlined the ‘historical reality’ — that women in our society have been subjected to discrimination, misbehavior and ill-treatment not only outside their house, also inside it.

The court also said the causes for this treatment were illiteracy, economic dependence on men and insensitivity to their own rights and their dignity.

“Even a working woman — from a construction worker to a qualified professional — is not always treated with respect at home,” Justice Jain said.

It is immaterial whether the “aggrieved person” was living with the husband when the offence was committed.

Once the magistrate is satisfied that the petitioner is an “aggrieved person” and that domestic violence had taken place or is likely to take place, he is competent to pass a protection order, the high court said.