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2012 Supreme(Bom) 64

ALLMR (Cri) 2012 (2) 1201
In the High Court of Bombay at Nagpur
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.H. JOSHI
Manoj Harikisanji Changani & Others
Versus
Sau. Prema Shrinivas Changani & Others
Criminal Application [apl] No.564 of 2011
Decided On: 11-01-2012

Advocates:
Advocate Appeared
For the Applicants:Anup Dhore, Advocate.
For the Respondents:R1 & R2, V.K. Paliwal, Advocate.

Headnote:Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 - Section 12 - Application for grant of reliefs under. An application for various reliefs under Section 12 of Act filed by wife, can be entertained by Court even without calling for a report of Protection Officer with regard to domestic violence.

       Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 - Section 12 - Report of Protection Officer. Court, while entertaining an application under Section 12 of Act, not mandatorily required to call for report of Protection Officer with regard to domestic violence.

Judgment :

1. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent.

2. By this application, the applicants have challenged the order passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Amgaon, below Exh.9 in Regular Complaint Case No. 12 of 2011.

3. The respondents had filed an application for various reliefs under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

4. The present applicants were summoned and upon appearance on 14th February, 2011, they filed application praying for revocation of the order passed below Exh.1 issuing notices to them. In the said application, the applicants had raised various grounds.

5. The learned Judicial Magistrate First Class heard the application [Exh.9], and rejected the same.

6. In present petition, the order taking cognizance of case under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, is challenged.

7. Though various grounds were urged, reliance is placed on following three judgments:-

[a] Bhupender Singh Mehra Vs. State NCT of Delhi & another [Cri. M.C. No. 1766 of 2010, decided on 8th Oct., 2010 by Delhi High Court],

[b] Nandkishor Damodar Vinchurkar Vs. Kavita Nandkishor Vinchurkar & another [2009 (3) Bom. C.R. (Cri.) 280], and

[c] Pawan Sadhuram Aaswani & others Vs. Sau. Kushi Pawan Aaswani & another [Criminal Application No. 2368 of 2007, decided on 2nd June, 2008 (Coram : A.P. Lavande, J.)],

8. Based onthe citations relied upon, following point and submissions are advanced:-

Point: That, before entertaining any application under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and passing any order, whatsoever, thereon, the Court is bound to call for the report of the Protection Officer as regards the domestic violence. If such report is not called and is not considered, proceeding with the application would amount to abuse of process of law.

Submissions :-

[a] Ratio of judgment of Delhi High Court is that justice would mean avoiding a vexatious application. Therefore, after the Domestic Violence Report is called, it may reveal that no wrong was done to the woman who had made the application.

[b] Truth may surface, and if the application is false or vexatious, the relatives, who may be named as respondents vexatiously, can be saved from embarrassment and torture.

[c] Thus, the act of calling the report shall result in advancing justice.

[d] Considering the language employed in the proviso to Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, calling and consideration of the domestic violence report is mandatory.

9. In order to test the submissions, this Court has considered the scheme of the Act and the Rules.

10. On perusal of the format devised and put into the rules, it reveals that the format has been devised keeping in view exploratory aspect and approach.

11. Whenever a lay person approaches either the Protection Officer or the authority directly to furnish a report, the Protection Officer has to explore and retrieve the information on various aspects included in the format and enquire or investigate into ill-treatment which may have been given to the applicant. Various other connected matters would surface and the Protection Officer would bring the reality on record.

12. This Court has seen in many cases that:-

[a] Certain applications are well drafted either by the applicant or the lawyer and every point and material required for adjudication is present in the application.

[b] Attribution of motives is easily noticeable in many applications than narration of factual data of exactly what acts of domestic violence are caused and by which persons.

[c] A long array of respondents is made without attributing specific acts of violence.

[d] The applications for the women, who are ill-treated and are victims, are drafted without taking due care. Rather are drafted negligently, in a reckless manner, and with apathy.

13. From the point of view of bringing the truth before the Court, it is considered neces

















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