Female too to face domestic violence heat

NEW DELHI: In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court has ruled that the estranged wife or partners living in the nature of marriage can file complaint against the female relatives of the estranged husband under the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

There shall be no restrictive meaning to the expression "relative" in the act to cover only the male relatives of the husband, said the apex court setting aside an order of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court.

“It is true that the expression ‘female’ has not been used in the proviso to section 2(q) of the Act also, but on the other hand, if the legislature intended to exclude females from the ambit of the complaint, which can be filed by an aggrieved wife, females would have been specifically excluded,” said a bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Cyriac Joseph in its judgement.

The bench said, “legislature never intended to exclude female relatives of the husband or male partner from the ambit of a complaint that can be made under the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005.”