Domestic Violence: Court Has To Be Prima Facie Satisfied That There Have Been Instances Of Violence Before Issuing Notice In Complaint: SC

The Supreme Court has observed that, before issuing notice in a complaint alleging Domestic Violence, the court has to be prima facie satisfied that there have been instances of domestic violence.

In this case, a wife had made allegations of domestic violence against fourteen persons, including her husband and his parents. All other respondents are relatives of parents-in-law of the complainant, who are residing in other states.

The bench of Justices R. Banumathi, AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy noted that, insofar as husband and Parents-in-law, there are averments of alleging domestic violence alleging that they have taken away the jewellery of the respondent gifted to her by her father during marriage and the alleged acts of harassment to the respondent. As regards other, the bench said:

“There are no specific allegations as to how other relatives of appellant No.14 have caused the acts of domestic violence. It is also not known as to how other relatives who are residents of Gujarat and Rajasthan can be held responsible for award of monetary relief to the respondent. The High Court was not right in saying that there was prima facie case against the other appellants No.3 to 13. Since there are no specific allegations against appellants No.3 to 13, the criminal case of domestic violence against them cannot be continued and is liable to be quashed.”

Case Details:-

Case name : SHYAMLAL DEVDA vs. PARIMALA
Case no. : CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 141 OF 2020
Coram : Justices R. Banumathi, AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy
Counsel : Adv Balaji Srinivasan for Appellant and Adv Nidhi for Respondent