A single judge bench of justice Sandipkumar More was hearing a plea filed by a 50-year-old agriculturist from Pahapal village in Yavatmal district, challenging the order passed by an additional sessions judge at Kelapur on April 27, 2021, enhancing maintenance granted to his divorced wife by a magistrate court from ₹1,500 to ₹3,000. The magistrate had passed the maintenance order on a DV complaint filed by the woman.
The agriculturist argued that the lower courts erred in granting and enhancing the maintenance amount to his divorced wife by ignoring the fact that there was no domestic relationship between them since 2009, when she left the matrimonial home on her own.
He said the marriage was solemnised in May 2005 and after around four years of cohabitation, she left the matrimonial home on her own and started residing with her parents. He added that the woman was not entitled to any relief of maintenance under the provisions of DV Act after a competent court in January 2014 dissolved their marriage, as there was no subsisting domestic relationship between them.
The woman’s counsel, however, justified the lower court orders, holding that she was entitled to maintenance by invoking provisions of the DV Act even after divorce, by relying on a 2022 judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Prabha Tyagi vs Kamlesh Devi.
Justice More accepted the arguments advanced on behalf of the woman after noticing that in Prabha Tyagi’s case, the apex court had held that it is not necessary that domestic relationship should be subsisting at the time of filing of an application under the DV Act by the aggrieved person, and the aggrieved person is entitled to file an application under Section 12 of the DV Act if the person has at any point of time lived in a relationship and has been subjected to domestic violence.
Justice More said the observation clearly indicated that divorced wife was included in the definition of aggrieved person under the DV Act and, therefore, entitled to claim relief under the DV Act, and dismissed the plea filed by the agriculturist.
