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Harrased Male (xxxx)     09 June 2012

Will this judgement help?

Respected Advisors,

I came accross this article in Times of India which I am pasting below. Kindly advice if it helps for a man to move out of his parents owned home into a rented apartment, if Right to residence under DV Act is filed by his wife.

The Article is as under

NEW DELHI: If a man arranges an alternative accommodation for his estranged wife, she cannot take recourse to the Domestic Violence Act to force her husband to leave his house, the Delhi high court has said.

Justice M L Mehta gave the ruling while disposing of a city's resident plea for quashing of his wife's complaint for his prosecution under Domestic Violence Act. As per the Act's provision, the wife had also sought the man's eviction from his house.

"The objective of providing right of residence to the wife (under the DV Act) was that she should not be left homeless by an action of the husband," HC noted saying in a situation like this, court can't agree with the wife that her husband, who is the owner of the house and in view of the settlement that was arrived at between them by virtue of which she got few properties, should be directed to leave the premises and made to stay in a farm house at far away place at this stage.

Terming the man's offer to his estranged wife to arrange alternative accommodation for her as "just and reasonable, the court said, "Till alternative arrangement of a suitable two- bed-room accommodation is made by the petitioner for his wife, she would continue to stay there."
 
Please Advice
 
Thank You


Learning

 4 Replies


(Guest)

Oh! no!

please don't post these topics..



(Guest)

Why can't govt make shelter homes for the needy wives? And they are wasting money on toilet renovations....

Anjuru Chandra Sekhar (Advocate )     10 June 2012

19. Residence orders.-(1) While disposing of an application under sub-section (1) of section 12, the Magistrate may, on being satisfied that domestic violence has taken place, pass a residence order - (a) restraining the respondent from dispossessing or in any other manner disturbing the possession of the aggrieved person from the shared household, whether or not the respondent has a legal or equitable interest in the shared household; (b) directing the respondent to remove himself from the shared household; (c) restraining the respondent or any of his relatives from entering any portion of the shared household in which the aggrieved person resides; (d) restraining the respondent from alienating or disposing off the shared household or encumbering the same; (e) restraining the respondent from renouncing his rights in the shared household except with the leave of the Magistrate; or (f) directing the respondent to secure same level of alternate accommodation for the aggrieved person as enjoyed by her in the shared household or to pay rent for the same, if the circumstances so require:

Anjuru Chandra Sekhar (Advocate )     10 June 2012

Here (d, (e) and (f) are relevant for people who want to move out of shared house-hold. Before residence orders are issued by magistrate you can leave your house and go on rent to some other house. However the word "rights" in (e) is not clear. If "right" means "ownership" then by moving out of your house and taking a rented house, you have not renounced your ownership. Therefore, even if an order under (e) is passed you have not violated residence order by taking some new house on rent. And (f) gives freedom to magistrate to direct the respondent to secure alternate accommodation for aggrieved person if circumstances so require. My understanding is this is aimed to prevent vindictive attitude on the part of complainant to force husband and his parents to stay along with her. If the husband and parents apprehend that by staying with her they may be dragged into further police cases by the complainant, they can pray the court that they will provide alternate accommodation to the aggrieved person. Yes, the judgment you have quoted will help you.

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