The right of a wife to a shared household under the Domestic Violence Act will prevail against a decree obtained by her aged in-laws under the Senior Citizens Act, ruled by the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, December 15.
{{nQcAwYhXHrXXKWKSsdAL}}
The order is supposed to offer necessary insulation to wives battling Court Cases against hostile in-laws, providing them much-needed respite from getting evicted from husband’s home. This decision follows a judgment pronounced by the Supreme Court two months ago where the Court noted that even if the shared household is a joint family property where the husband has no legal right or share, the same shall still be treated as a shared household for the wife to continue staying put.
The present case threw a rather interesting clash between two special laws –Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005, which seeks to protect wives facing domestic violence, & the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, created to protect senior citizens by providing a speedy & inexpensive remedy to secure their interests at an advanced stage of life.
The bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Indu Malhotra & Justice Indira Banerjee analyzed both laws & found that Section 3 of the 2007 Act had an overriding effect over any other law. It was this argument that the aged parents of the husband used to obtain an eviction order against their daughter-in-law from their Bengaluru home. The High Court of Karnataka on Sept 17, 2019, upheld the order of eviction against the daughter-in-law who approached the Top Court in appeal.
Coming to her rescue, the bench said, “Section 3 of the Senior Citizens Act, 2007 cannot be deployed to over-ride & nullify other protections in law particularly that of a woman’s right to a shared household under Section 17 of the PWDV Act 2005.”
Justice Chandrachud, writing the judgment for the bench, said, “The law protecting the interest of senior citizens is intended to ensure that they are not left destitute, or at the mercy of their children or relatives. Equally, the purpose of the PWDV Act 2005 cannot be ignored by a sleight of statutory interpretation. Both sets of legislations have to be harmoniously construed.”
The bench protected the petitioner wife & ordered that neither the husband nor her in-laws would forcefully try to evict her from her shared household for one year till she avails her remedies under the PWDV Act.