Entire family roped in a domestic violence case: How to quash? My son got married on 16th Sep 2021. The girl stayed with us only for 18 days. She left for her place on 13th Oct and did not return till date. Now she has filed a petition under Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act 2005. Ours is an absolutely ethical and orthodox family. Therefore, no demands were made and it was a simple marriage. My son is well placed in the IT industry.
Your daughter in law temporarily stayed in her matrimonial home because she lived in the shared household for just eighteen days. The entire scheme of the DV Act is thus to provide immediate relief to the aggrieved person with respect to the shared household where the aggrieved person lives or has lived.
The aggrieved person (daughter in law) did not live in the shared household (your house) with the intention to live there permanently. She stayed there for just eighteen days. Therefore, your house shall not be treated as the shared household under Section 2(s) of the DV Act.
In Satish Chandra Ahuja v. Sneha Ahuja (2021) 1 SCC 148 the hon'ble Supreme Court has held that “lives or at any stage has lived in a domestic relationship have to be given its normal and purposeful meaning. The living of a woman in a household has to refer to a living which has some permanency. Mere fleeting or casual living at different places shall not make a shared household.”
Entire family roped in a domestic violence case: How to quash?
You should move a petition in the High Court under Section 482 of the code of criminal procedure for quashing the complaint filed under Section 12 of DV Act.
The decision of Supreme Court in Satish Chandra Ahuja case excludes your house from the meaning of “shared household” because the aggrieved person lived there temporarily or just for a fleeting stay.
Once the house shall not be treated as the shared household, thereafter, no offence under the DV Act is made out against the accused. Hence, the High Court may quash the complaint filed under the DV Act.
Your daughter in law has fraudulently and dishonestly roped the entire family in the domestic violence case. It is hard to presume that a newly wedded woman was subjected to domestic violence in just eighteen days stay in her matrimonial home. This fact constitutes a solid ground for quashing this kind of false and frivolous complaint.
