1. Rule. Respondents waive service. By consent, Rule is made returnable forthwith and the petition is taken up for hearing and final disposal.

2. A short question raised in this petition is whether in an application filed under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as 'DV Act'), the Applicant can be permitted to file affidavit in evidence.

3. The brief facts leading to this Petition are as under:

The Respondent was married to the Petitioner on 15.2.2013. The matrimonial dispute between the parties led to the Petitioner filing a Divorce Petition being P.A. No.1223 of 2015, which is pending before the Family Court. The Respondent-wife has also filed an application under Section 12 of the DV Act being M.A. No.717 of 2015 before the learned J.M.F.C., Cantonment, Pune. The Petitioner filed his reply to the said application under Section12 of the DV Act and said proceedings were fixed for evidence on 29.11.2016.

4. The Petitioner-husband filed an application dated 7.11.2016 contending that the proceedings under the DV Act are to be dealt with in the manner laid down under Section 125 of the Cr.P.C. The Petitioner therefore, claimed that the Respondent-wife is not entitled to file an affidavit-in-evidence and sought direction to call upon the Respondent-wife to step into the witness box and adduce evidence.

5. The learned Magistrate, upon hearing the respective parties held that Section 28(2) of the DV Act permits the Court to lay down its own procedure for disposal of an application under Section 12 of the DV Act. The learned Magistrate further held that considering the object of the Act and particularly the time frame within which such applications are required to be disposed of, it is permissible to conduct the examination-in-chief of the Respondent wife on an affidavit. Based on the aforesaid findings the learned Magistrate dismissed the application filed by the Petitioner. Hence, this Petition.

6. Mr. Abhijeet Saravate, the learned counsel for the Petitioner submitted that in view of Section 28(1) r/w Sub Rule 5 of Rule 6 of the DV Rules, 2006 evidence in application under Section 12 is required to be recorded in presence of the Respondent in a manner prescribed for summons case. He contends that the Act does not contemplate filing of affidavit-in-evidence and hence the learned Magistrate was not justified in permitting the Respondent to file her affidavit-n-evidence. In support of this contention, he has relied upon decisions of this Court in Anil Ambashankar Joshi Vs. Mrs. Reena Anil Joshi in Writ Petition 4243 of 2015 and Sachin Vs. Sushma 2015 (0) ALL MR (Cri) 3128. He has also relied upon the decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Madhusudan Bhardwadj and Ors. Vs. Mamta Bhardwaj 2009 (2) Crimes 284.

7. Mr. Abhijeet Desai, the learned Counsel for the Respondent No.1 submits that Sub Section 2 of Section 28 gives wide powers to the Court to lay down its own procedure for disposal of applications under Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act. He contends that Sub Section 5 of Section 12 of the DV Act, mandates disposal of the application under Section 12 within a time bound frame of 60 days. He therefore, contends that to achieve this object the learned Magistrate can take recourse to Sub Section 2 of Section 28 of the DV Act and thus permit the Petitioner to file affidavit-in-evidence. He further submits that such procedure does not contravene the procedure prescribed either under Sub Section 1 of Section 28 of the DV Act or Sub Rule 5 of Rule 6 thereof. In support of this contention he has relied upon decisions of Madras High Court in Laxman Vs. Sangeetha (2009) SCC OnLine Mad 1626, the Karnataka High Court in M/s. K. Manjunath Reddy Vs. Smt. Latha A.C in Criminal Petition No. 1726 of 2016 and decision of Patna High Court in Manish Kumar Soni & Ors. Vs. State of Bihar and Anr. II(2016) DMC 207 (pat.)

8. I have perused the records and considered the submiss