Recently, the Allahabad High Court has held that a mother-in-law can file a case against her daughter-in-law or any other person, as being harassed or tortured would bring her under the purview of aggrieved person under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act. 

Justice Alok Mathur in his order held:

“In case, mother-in-law is harassed or physically or mentally tortured by the daughter-in-law or any other member of the family, certainly she could be brought within the fold of aggrieved person and would have a right to maintain the application under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.”

Applicant No.1 is the daughter-in-law and the other applicants are her family members. Opposite party, mother-in-law, filed an application under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 against the daughter-in-law and her family members alleging that the daughter-in-law was forcing her son to move to her parents' home. It was also alleged that the daughter-in-law was misbehaving with her and her son and threatening them with false cases.

Section 12 of the DV Act states that an aggrieved person or a Protection Officer or any other person on behalf of the aggrieved person may present an application to the Magistrate seeking certain reliefs under the Act which can include compensation. Section 2 of the Act defines an aggrieved person to mean any woman who is, or has been, in a domestic relationship with the respondent and who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent. 

A "domestic relationship" means a relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of time, lived together in a shared household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage, or through a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption or are family members living together as a joint family. A "respondent" means any adult male person who is, or has been, in a domestic relationship with the aggrieved person and against whom the aggrieved person has sought any relief under this Act: Provided that an aggrieved wife or female living in a relationship in the nature of a marriage may also file a complaint against a relative of the husband or the male partner.

The opposite party also alleged that the applicant and her relatives forcibly took jewellery and certain amount of cash away. On the application under Section 12, the Trial Judge issued notices and summons to the applicants.

Applicants challenged the order of the Trial Judge pleading that the case under Section 12 of DV Act was a counterblast to the proceedings initiated by the Applicant under IPC Sections 498-A(Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 323(voluntarily causing hurt), 504(Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) & 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. It was also pleaded that proceedings under Section 125 CrPC were also pending before the Trial Court.

Justice Mathur observed that the Trial Court had recorded satisfaction for issuing summons and the arguments raised by the applicants were defence which could be taken before the Trial Court.

The Court held that the term “aggrieved person” is broad enough and cannot be interpreted narrowly to exclude mother-in-law who has been harassed or tortured by the daughter-in-law or others. It held that DV Act is a beneficial legislation for women and the same needs to interpreted liberally.

Perusing the definitions of “aggrieved person”, “domestic relationship", "respondent" and "shared household" , the Court held

“On conjoint reading of the above sections, it can be inferred that the aggrieved person can be any woman who has lived in a domestic relationship in a shared household with the respondent. Here, in this case, the mother in law is the aggrieved woman who has shared household and lived together with the daughter in law in a domestic relationship as a joint family and therefore has a right to file application under Sec. 12 of the Act of 2005.”

Accordingly, the Court held that mother-in-law can file an application under Section 12 of the DV Act, and dismissed the application filed by the applicants under Section 482 CrPC.

Case Title: X & Others v. State Of U.P. And Another

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