Smt. Geeta And Ors. Vs The State Of U.P And Anr. (Allahbad HC, Lucknow Bench) (U/S 482/378/407 No: 6054 of 2013)
From the perusal of the aforesaid provisions of the Act what follows is that a women covered by the definition of an aggrieved person as defined under the Act has a right to present an application under the Act to the Magistrate seeking one or more reliefs to which she is entitled under the Act on her proving that she is or has been in a domestic relationship with the respondents and has been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent. Thus it is evident that before a person or persons can be proceeded against by an aggrieved person under Section 12 of the Act she must plead and prove, that such person or persons and the aggrieved person are either living together or have at any point of time lived together in a shared household or are family members living together as a joint family and the aggrieved person has been subjected to any act of domestic violence by such person or persons.
I have very carefully perused the averments made in the complaint filed by the opposite party no.2 under Section 12 of the Act before the court below, copy whereof has been annexed as Annexure-1 to this application. The complaint opens with the paragraph that the applicants who are her sister in law and brother in law are residing separately. There is no averment in the complaint that the applicants had any point of time either lived together with the opposite party no.2 in a shared household. Even otherwise the allegations of violence made by the opposite party no.2 against the applicants in the complaint are totally vague. No specific incident of domestic violence has been mentioned. For the aforesaid reasons, I have no hesitation in holding that the petition filed by the opposite party no.2 under Section 12 of the Act against the applicants is lacking in essential ingredients entitling her to seek any relief against the applicants. As a result, I have no hesitation in holding that the continuance of the proceedings under the Act against the applicants shall be an abuse of process of law, I accordingly allow the application and quash the proceedings as against the applicants in case no. 254 of 2011.