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Anup Singh (Employee)     13 October 2013

False dv act (firm property involved)

I am partner in a company (partnership firm) which was registered in 1987 at registrar firms in bangalore and the firm purchased a property in 1993. The present property is run as a office and also commercially paying taxes in corporation having all other commercial receipts and registration certificates (electricity bills etc...).

One of the partners wife had marital dispute in the year 2011. The wife of the partner in dispute, had registered a police complaint FIR against the husband (a partner of the firm). Falsely, with the help of police, she secured possession of the commercial property which belongs to the firm mentioned above by mis-representing that the partnership firm's property was a "residential property". Earlier, to the FIR, in the complaint she had informed the police she was staying in the above address and with the protection of the police, she entered the firms building and instantly after filing the FIR she filed for a Domestic Violence protection order by misrepresenting the court and taken an interim ex-parte order against the husband and his family members, who also happen to be partners in our firm.

After the order was passed, husband and his family members who were accused in the false domestic violence act went on an appeal against the order, and the appeal was granted under Section 25 (DV Act, I'm not sure which act). The appeal court ordered the trial court to conduct an inquiry on the property as well as for maintainence for the aggrieved person. Now the matter is in trail court where the inquiry and evidence regarding property has been conducted.

At the time of inquiry the firm has produced documents of property registered in the firms name (Sale deed, Kaatha, Commercial tax receipts, bank statements, correspondence, commercial electricity bills etc...). Also the firm has recently put an intervening application of the above case as a party under Rule 311 (DV Act I guess) to set aside the DV Act protection order which was granted against the firms property not to disturb or alienate or do such act to disturb or dispossess the aggrieved person (the wife and the children who are presently squatting in the firms property).

The questions I would like to ask is as follows:

1) The false domestic violence act was passed against the firms property , not to disturb or dispossess them (wife and children) who have wrongly misrepresented the court by filing an FIR and forceably entered the building with a DV act interim order.

We want to know whether the false domestic violence case can be applied or used against the firms property or firms name or can any firms property be involved in a false Domestic violence case in general.


2) The husband and wife have lived seperately since 1995 and they have never stayed together since '95. Husband has a passport and bank and other identification in a seperate address different from the wife's address. The wife, in her petition, has mentioned to the court, that she has lived in 10 different addresses (which probably are rented houses) and none of the wife's addresses are the same as the husband in any documents. They also do not own or have rented any commonly shared house.


In 2011 she falsely files an FIR against husband using the firms address in her complaint against the husband and claiming she was residing there, and also claiming the husband is threatening to throw her out of the 'house' (which is actually the firms office property). Without any inquiry, the police has furnished an FIR against the husband and this FIR copy she has also produced in the false DV act case and falsely misrepresented that there was violence to show the court that the FIR was evidence that she was residing in the firms address.

Now, keeping above in mind, are there any citations or remedy to quash the false DV act case. Is there any hopes of quashing the DV act through any other process or with the firm help.

What are grounds of removing her from the firms property as our business has been completely disrupted.



Learning

 1 Replies

Samir N (General Queries) (Business)     14 October 2013

I am not an advocate so please treat my advice accordingly. However, I have faced DV cases personally and learned more than most advocates on this Act. So, here's my take on your situation:


Most likely your side (I mean the husband) had a MORON as your advocate and if you are unfamiliar with family laws and DV Acts, be assured that 90% of the advocates you come across will be precisely that. 90% of Advocates are also crooks and about 0.5% are OK. It all does not add up to 100% because most of them are both MORONs and CROOKs and will try to drag your case for years. They have no knowledge of the latest developments in applicable law and give answers with confidence despite their abysmal ignorance. This is what appears to have happened in your case.


First, the DV Act has a one year period of limitation which means that the couple must have been living in a shared household for at least one year, immediately preceding the filing of the DV petition.   Here are the relevant case laws. You need to parse the language carefully and quote the appropriate paragraphs from them as on the face the facts may appear to be different: Bombay High Court: Criminal Application No. 160/2011 decided on 7.3.2013 and Supreme Court Judgement Inderjit Singh Grewal vs. State of Punjab & Anr. Cri. Appeal No. 1635/2011   Therefore, the DV case is not maintainable and  should have been thrown out in limine. i.e. at the threshold.


Commercial properties fall totally outside the DV Act. 

Only Shared Household which is a "property" that the husband owns or rent and in which she has lived with him is a shared household. See Supreme Court's decision in Batra v. Batra which is the seminal case on this subject. Search on the net and you will get enough links on it and other cases derived from this case.


You have nothing to worry. Just do some reading on the net and educate yourself on the subject.  It is a small Act. Your biggest headache is not your partner's wife but your advocate.  Now you will need to initiate proceedings to have her vacate the premises. Have her in-laws initiate the proceedings which under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act should be started within 6 months of dispossession. Your claim is basically that she dispossessed you or your partners. You may also get the DV Judge or the appellate Judge pass an Order asking her to vacate these premises though technically that may be difficult. The other party can argue that there is no provision in the DV Act to give relief to defendants but only to deny relief to the petitioner. Technically you will be asking relief to be given to you as she is already in possession. A separate Civil Court filing may be required.


Good Luck!!!


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