B.D. Agarwal, J.

1. The proceeding under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (Briefly, 'PWDV Act'), pending in the Court of learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hailakandi, Assam in MR Case No. 34 of 2008 is under challenge in this criminal petition. This application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Proceeding, 1973, read with Section 20(1) of the Constitution of India has been filed by the husband praying for quashing the aforesaid criminal proceeding against him.

2. Heard the arguments of Dr. B. Ahmed, learned counsel for the petitioner and that of Mr. MH Rajbarbhuiyan, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. l/complainant. The State was represented by Mr. K. Munir, learned Additional P.P. for the State.

3. Whether the PWDV Actis retrospective or prospective and whether, the criminal proceeding is hit by Article 20(1) of the Constitution is the moot question for consideration before this court. In my view, before answering the question it would be just and appropriate to have an insight view of the facts of the case, which are briefly narrated below:

3.1. The marriage between the parties took place in the year 1996