‘Number of visits not sufficient to prove living in same household’: Bombay high court quashes sister-in-law’s domestic violence case

The Bombay High Court has quashed a domestic violence case against a woman, the complainant’s sister-in-law, holding that her mere visit did not amount to domestic relations.

“Mere visit by the petitioner to the joint home without any permanent residence is not sufficient to constitute residence in the joint home. Even taking into account the pleadings and reliefs in the application, there is no case of domestic violence,” the order read.

A single judge bench of the high court headed by Justice Sharmila Deshmukh was considering the married woman’s appeal against the court order. The complainant filed a domestic violence lawsuit against her husband, mother-in-law, unmarried brother-in-law and married sister-in-law.

The Magistrate Court issued summonses to all the defendants except the sister-in-law on the grounds that the sister-in-law lived in a different household. However, the complainant appealed this decision, leading the court to name her sister-in-law as a defendant and to say whether she lived with the family would be determined during the trial.

Dissatisfied with the court order, the woman approached the High Court. Her lawyer, Satyvrat Joshi, argued that there was no domestic relationship between the parties within the meaning of Section 2(f) of the Domestic Violence Act as the parties did not live together or even in the past Neither lived together. joint family.

Josh argued that just because the sister-in-law would spend the entire day in the shared household, it did not mean that a family relationship existed. He added that the woman was married before the complainant’s marriage and lived in her matrimonial home.

Subodh Desai, a lawyer representing the complainant, argued that the sister-in-law’s specific actions amounted to domestic violence. However, the Supreme Court agreed with the sister-in-law’s contention and accordingly quashed the order passed by the court.