IMPORTANT POINT
Domestic Violence – Shared household – Wife is entitled to stay in house of her in laws even when her husband has left the house.

M.M.S. Bedi, J.

An application filed by Shivani for a residence order and maintenance has been allowed by Judicial Magistrate, Hansi. The said order has been upheld by the Appellate Court.

2. A perusal of the order passed by the Magistrate indicates that the claim of respondent wife to have residence in the shared household in Fatehabad has been allowed to the extent of one room, one toilet, bathroom and kitchen specifying that toilet, bathroom and kitchen could be joint subject to the availability.

3. Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the house belongs to petitioner No.1 who is father-in-law of the respondent and that husband and wife are not residing in the said house as such it will not fall within the definition of 'shared household'.

4. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioners and gone through the pleadings of the parties. The case of the respondent wife is that she stayed in the house at Fatehabad for six months but after six months of marriage her husband had taken her to Gurgaon with him where he used to harass her by different modes. He is alleged to have an extra-marital affair with one Nevadita and that she was ousted from the house at Gurgaon. Petitioner No.1 had arrived at Gurgaon and taken the respondent with him to Fatehabad where she resided. She was forcibly ousted from the said house. The plea taken by the husband and the petitioners in their reply is that respondent had voluntarily left the matrimonial home. The husband of the respondent has taken up the plea that he has left his job on account of compulsion of his wife and he started living in Fatehabad with his wife but she left the matrimonial home with her sweet will without the knowledge of the husband. The husband has also taken up the plea that he had been doing job in HDFC Bank where he was disturbed by his wife and that he is unemployed on account of misbehaviour of the wife with the employer of the husband.

5. In view of the above said pleadings, the short question which is required to be seen is whether the respondent wife could be said to have stayed in the shared household as per definition of Section 2 (s) of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, for short 'the Act'. Section 2 (s) of the Act reads as follows:-

"Section 2(s): 'shared household' means a household where the person aggrieved lives or at any stage has lived in a domestic relationship either singly or along with the respondent and includes such a household whether owned or tenanted either jointly by the aggrieved person and the respondent, or owned or tenanted by either of them in respect of which either the aggrieved person or the respondent or both jointly or singly have any right, title, interest or equity and includes such a household which may belong to the joint family of which the respondent is a member, irrespective of whether the respondent or the aggrieved person has any right, title or interest in the shared household".

6. Wife has got a right under Section 17 of the Act which reads as follows:-

"Section 17 (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every woman in a domestic relationship shall have the right to reside in the shared household, whether or not she has any right, title or beneficial interest in the same.

(2) The aggrieved person shall not be evicted or excluded from the shared household or any part of it by the respondent save in accordance with the procedure established by law."

7. The Courts below after going through the pleadings and the material available on the record have passed interim orders granting residence order and maintenance to the respondent.

8. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner who places reliance on the judgment of S.R. Batra and another v. Smt. Taruna Batra, 2007 (1) RCR (Crl.) 403 wherein it had been observed in the circumstances of the case that wife could only be entitled to claim a right to residence in a shared household, and a shared household wou