Order permitting any person, male or female, to invoke Domestic Violence Act, 2005 – Withdrawn

Karnataka High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Anand Byrareddy, J. allowed a criminal petition filed by a Muslim male holding that he was entitled to invoke the provisions of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (DV Act).

The petition was filed under Section 482 CrPC by the petitioner, a male. Being aggrieved by certain acts of his wife and her family, the petitioner invoked the provisions of DV Act. Learned City Civil and Sessions Judge was not impressed by the action brought on behalf of the petitioner as in his opinion, the Act was heavily loaded in favor of women and it does not contemplate any male member being aggrieved by domestic violence. Feeling aggrieved, the petitioner approached the High Court.

In order to settle the issue, the High Court relied on the Supreme Court decision in Hiralal P. Harsora v.  Kusum Narottamdas Harsora, (2016) 10 SCC 165, wherein the Hon’ble Court had struck down a part of Section 2(a) of DV Act holding it to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, and the phrase ‘adult male’ as appearing in Section 2(q) stood deleted. The High Court observed that if the said sub-section is read after deletion of the expression ‘adult male’, it would appear that any aggrieved person, in terms of DV Act, whether male or female, is entitled to invoke provisions of the Act. Having stated thus, the High Court held that petitioner’s complaint could not have been trashed merely on the ground that the Act does not contemplate provisions for men. The petition was accordingly allowed. [Mohd. Zakir v. Shabana, Crl. Petition No. 2351 of 2017, dated 18.04.2018]

Update: By an order dated 28.04.2018, Byrareddy J. withdrew the above-mentioned order and restored the petition to the file.

The order reads as – “Notwithstanding Section 362 of Cr.P.C., the order rendered by this Court earlier on 18.04.2018 is found to be patently erroneous and therefore the order is withdrawn. The petition is restored to file and the registry is directed not to web host the order passed earlier and to take note of the fact that the order is withdrawn.” [Mohd. Zakir v. Shabana, Crl. Petition No. 2351 of 2017, dated 28-04-2018]