The main legal point established in the judgment is that limitation for filing complaints under the Domestic Violence Act does not apply to continuing wrongs, as clarified by a recent Supreme Court judgment.

JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Civil Revision Petition is filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, to call for the records pertaining to the case in DV.No.5 of 2014 on the file of the District Munsif-cum-Judicial Magistrate No.I, Hosur, struck off the same.)

1. This Civil Revision Petition has been filed to struck off the proceedings pending before the learned District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate-No.I, Hosur, pertaining to the case of in domestic violence in DV.No.5/2014.

2. Heard the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner and the perused the materials available on record.

3. The Revision Petitioner is the husband. Against him, the respondent/wife has preferred a domestic violence complaint and the same was taken on file and pending before the learned District Munsif-cum-Judicial Magistrate-No.I, Hosur.

4. Now this petitioner has filed this Revision petition by claiming that the Domestic Violence Petition is barred by limitation, since the complaint has been given beyond a period of one year from the alleged date of the occurrence. It is further submitted that the petitioner and the respondent got separated and they were living separately for nearly 6 years before lodging the complaint; but the cognizance of the complaint was taken on 06.12.2014 and hence it is barred by limitation; since no enquiry or trial has been initiated in the domestic violence complaint and the complaint has been filed only to harass the revision petitioner and the same should be struck off.

5. On perusal of the complaint, it is seen that there are several allegations were made against the husband. Some of the allegations are categorized under verbal and emotional abuse, economical violence, dowry related harassment and other kinds of emotional violences in the complaint. Since the respondent/wife has alleged that she was driven out of the matrimonial home and she was not supported with any maintenance, the reliefs sought for in the domestic violence complaint are protection order, residential order, orders for maintenance and compensation.

6. The Act of -Domestic Violence- is defined under Sec.3 of the Domestic Violence Act and it reads as under:

Section 3 in The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

3. Definition of domestic violence.—For the purposes of this Act, any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence in case it—

(a) harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well-being, whether mental or physical, of the aggrieved person or tends to do so and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse; or

(b) harasses, harms, injures or endangers the aggrieved person with a view to coerce her or any other person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any dowry or other property or valuable security; or

(c) has the effect of threatening the aggrieved person or any person related to her by any conduct mentioned in clause (a) or clause (b); or

(d) otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or mental, to the aggrieved person. Explanation I.—For the purposes of this section,—

(i) “physical abuse” means any act or conduct which is of such a nature as to cause bodily pain, harm, or danger to life, limb, or health or impair the health or development of the aggrieved person and includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force;

(ii) “sexual abuse” includes any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity of woman;

(iii) “verbal and emotional abuse” includes—

(a) insults, ridicule, humiliation, name calling and insults or ridicule specially with regard to not having a child or a male child; and

(b) repeated threats to cause physical pain to any person in whom the aggrieved person is interested.

(iv) “economic abuse” includes­—

(a) deprivation of all or any economic or financial resources to which the aggrieved person is entitled under any la