ORDER :

1. This Criminal Petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C. was filed by the respondents in D.V.C. No. 123 of 2011 on the file of the learned IV Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad, to quash the proceedings therein.

2. Having heard the case, a learned Judge of this Court did not concur with the view taken by another learned Judge of this Court in A. Sreenivasa Rao vs. State of Andhra Pradesh, Crl. Pet. No. 7124 of 2008 dated 1.4.2011 and referred the following question to a Division Bench for decision:

Whether the domestic relationship between wife and husband ceases on obtaining a divorce in spite of they sharing a household, at some of point of time, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage or through a relationship in the nature of marriage?

3. Heard Mr. Javed Razack, learned counsel for the petitioners, and the learned Public Prosecutors for the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

4. It was the case of the petitioners that no provision of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (for short Act, 2005) enables a divorced wife to seek reliefs under Sections 18 to 23 of the Act, 2005, that the first respondent ceased to be the wife of the first petitioner long