According to advocate Mayur Salunkhe, the woman petitioner and the man had married on their own free will and the relatives against whom domestic violence allegation were made had never lived with the duo. (Representational) IN a rare case, a lower court in Pune has dropped charges of domestic violence levelled against three close relatives of a man — his wife had accused the three relatives of domestic violence — under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005. In effect, it means no trial will be held against the three relatives as they have been excluded from the case, their advocates said.
Passing the order, Juidicial Magistrate First Class, Shivajinagar, said the allegations made against the relatives were vague. The court said since “no specific incident” was mentioned, it was not seen the relatives had committed domestic violence against the applicant. Advocates Mayur Salunke and Ajinkya Salunkhe, who represented the three relatives said, “This is a rare instance when a lower court has dropped charges in a domestic violence case. Generally, such cases are dealt by the high court. The verdict will help those who have been wrongly charged in such domestic violence cases.”
According to advocate Mayur Salunkhe, the woman petitioner and the man had married on their own free will and the relatives against whom domestic violence allegation were made had never lived with the duo. “The relatives or non-applicants never lived with the petitioner (wife) and respondent (husband). They lived in separate flats whereas the woman petitioner, her husband and mother-in-law lived together.” The three relatives against whom charges have been dropped include the husband’s brother, his wife and his sister.
Advocate Ajinkya Salunkhe said, “On behalf of the relatives or non-applicants, it was pointed out that the petitioner had never made any specific allegations of domestic violence against the relatives which included her brother-in-law, his wife and sister-in-law or husband’s sister. It was also submitted before the court that these relatives were made party to the case without any reason and hence the case against them be dismissed.”
The petitioner, however, argued that the lower court did not have jurisdiction over the matter. The petitioner also submitted that all the non-applicants or the relatives have subjected the applicant to domestic violence for the past 13 years after which the applicant filed a case against them under Section 498-A. “Allegations were also made that the relatives forcibly evicted the applicant or petitioner along with her child. Besides, it was also alleged that no arrangement was made for her stay and maintenance.”
Advocate Ajinkya Salunkhe, another lawyer representing the relatives, said, “On behalf of the relatives, it was submitted that they have been separated from the husband-wife duo from the beginning and were made party to the case only to put pressure on them. It was also submitted that since 2007 when the two got married till the case was filed in 2019, only two incidents against relatives have been mentioned and even those allegations were general in nature.”
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