Judicial Magistrate giving a direction to the police authority concerned to break open the lock and give protection to the wife is not illegal
Coming to the order passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate giving a direction to the police authority concerned to break open the lock and give protection to the respondent to reside in the subject house, the Court finds that the learned Judicial Magistrate has ample power under Section 19(7) of the Act to give any order to the officer incharge to assist him in the implementation of the protection order. The interim residence order is one of the protection orders. Of course, the said provision does not specifically state that the learned Judicial Magistrate may direct the officer incharge to break open the lock. To give effect to the protection order passed ex-parte, the learned Judicial Magistrate will have to necessarily pass an order break open the lock by the police. If the submission made on the side of the petitioners that the learned Judicial Magistrate is not empowered to give any order to break open the lock is accepted, then in all cases, the husband will lock the house and walk off and thereby depriving the wife from enjoying the protection order passed under the Act. The Court finds that the aforesaid submission is against the spirit of the object and scheme of the benevolent Special Act.
