Women can seek aid from adopted, married kids
Widening the ambit of domestic violence, which was essentially meant to protect the women, a Delhi court in a significant ruling has said that a woman having no source of earning is entitled to seek maintenance even from her adopted son(s) and married daughter(s) under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act. After hearing the plea of a 70-year-old widow, Krishna, who moved the sessions court against the order of a metropolitan magistrate (MM) court, additional sessions judge
(ASJ) Dr Kamini Lau said, “A widowed destitute mother is entitled to maintenance not only from her adopted son but also from her married daughter.”
The court also said that the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, does not define family but it defines domestic relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of time, lived together in a shared household or accommodation.
The relationship will subsist between the two when they are related by consanguinity, marriage or through a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption or are family members living together as a joint family, the court added.
“Domestic relations are meant to cover sisters, widows, mothers and daughters and single women. The law does not specify separate relationship and mentions members in a joint family,” the court said. The court passed the observations after hearing the plea of Krishna, who sought modification of the order passed by a MM court directing her adopted son, Rohit Bharti, to pay Rs 250 per month to her as maintenance under the Domestic Violence Act.
The ASJ came to the rescue of Krishna, the widow, who alleged that she was allegedly harassed and was even being beaten up by her adopted son Rohit.
Terming the maintenance amount as “utterly inadequate and insufficient for her sustenance,” the court directed Rohit to pay a sum of Rs 2,500 per month to Krishna in lieu of keeping a portion of her house under his possession by keeping his article. After hearing the court’s order, noted criminal lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi, talking to this newspaper over phone, said, “It is a good order passed by the court. The order will give a ray of hope to those women who are really seeking maintenance.”
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