Wife can stop errant husband from entering home

A wife can restrain a husband, who creates nuisance, from entering their home, irrespective of who owns the house, the Bombay high court ruled on Wednesday. The court said that every woman has right to live peacefully in her matrimonial home.

A wife can restrain a husband, who creates nuisance, from entering their home, irrespective of who owns the house, the Bombay high court ruled on Wednesday. The court said that every woman has right to live peacefully in her matrimonial home.

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“The right to reside contains within itself the right to reside peaceably and to the exclusion of the violator (husband),” observed Justice Roshan Dalvi while upholding a family court ruling restraining a Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri, resident from entering his own flat.

Acting on a plea filed by his wife, the Bandra family court had earlier this year issued an interim direction to the man to move out of the family home in Beverly Hills building, and had also restrained him from creating nuisance by attempting to enter the flat.

The interim arrangement had been made to protect the woman and her children from the violent behaviour of the husband, an alcoholic, who would lose his temper and become aggressive under the influence of alcohol.

Justice Dalvi, however, dismissed the contention, observing that the Domestic Violence (DV) Act puts the woman’s personal rights over proprietary interest.