Brother-in-law told to pay maintenance in domestic violence case

The woman had filed a domestic violence case alleging her child and she were not allowed to reside in her matrimonial home following her husband’s death.

The Supreme Court has upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that directed a woman’s brother-in-law to pay maintenance to her under the Domestic Violence Act.

Supreme Court has upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that directed a woman’s brother-in-law to pay maintenance to her(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The woman had filed a domestic violence case alleging her child and she were not allowed to reside in her matrimonial home following her husband’s death. She demanded maintenance from the brother-in-law on the grounds he and her husband were business partners and both resided in a family property.

The order pronounced by a bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta analysed the scope of various definitions in the law and said the word “respondents” included any male adult with whom the complainant has had a domestic relationship. The law, it said, provides for the liability of maintenance on an adult male person in the complainant’s matrimonial home.

The trial court had granted interim maintenance in favour of the woman. The brother-in-law challenged the direction before the high court, which dismissed his appeal. The top court affirmed the view and dismissed the plea to set aside HC order.

Before the top court, the brother-in-law contended there was no basis for the liability of payment imposed on him. In this regard, the court examined the scope of the various definitions under the Act, such as “domestic relationship, “shared household” and “respondents”. The court held that domestic relationship, under the law, is any relationship where the two persons have at any point in time resided in a shared house