Women Who Leave In-Laws House Before Divorce Lose Right To Reside: Bombay HC

On Friday, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court said that a woman who left her in-laws house before the divorce, cannot later claim the "right to residence" under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Even if the woman's appeal against the divorce judgement is still pending, the case still applies.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to protect women from domestic violence.

Single-judge Justice Sandipkumar More stated this after an order was passed by a lower court that granted the right to the residence of a woman in her in-laws' house. They also granted her access to electricity, bathroom etc. in the house.

It was noted that Section 17 of the DV act allows women the right to residence but only when the woman continues to live in the shared household before the divorce.

Case

The court pointed this out while hearing a revision application filed by the in-laws of the divorced wife. They challenged the orders of a Magistrate who had allowed the divorced wife to reside in the shared matrimonial household, which was in the name of her now estranged father-in-law.

The bench said, "As such, Sakshi (the divorced wife) cannot take resort to the earlier residence order when her marriage with her husband has been dissolved by a divorce decree passed by the Court having proper jurisdiction and especially when she had already left her shared household four years back. Under the circumstances, she is not even entitled to the relief of restraining dispossession since she is not in possession of the shared household," the bar and bench reported.

According to the in-laws, the family court had dissolved the ex-couple's marriage by a detailed order passed on July 10, 2018. They added that an appeal filed by the woman challenging the said order is pending before the High Court.

Long before the divorce was finalised, the woman had already moved out of the marital home. Also, she was unable to produce any proof showing that she was compelled to leave the shared household. Given these facts, the court ruled that it can’t grant possession rights, even if an appeal against the divorce judgement was pending.

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