'Divorce no ground for quashing domestic violence proceedings'

The Madras High Court has ruled that divorce obtained from a man would not be the ground for quashing proceedings initiated by the woman against him under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005.

Justice C.T.Selvam of the Madurai Bench, dismissing a petition filed by the man, whose former wife had initiated the proceedings, said the Supreme Court had held that the conduct of a man even prior to enactment of the PWDVA could be taken into account by the court concerned before passing orders in the proceedings.

Hence the petitioner's submission that proceedings initiated in the capacity of being the wife of the alleged offender could not be allowed to continue after the woman had lost that status, was not acceptable, the judge said.

The counsel stated that the Act defined an aggrieved person to mean "any woman who is or has been in a domestic relationship" and the term "Domestic relationship" to mean a relationship between two persons who live or have, at point of time, lived together in a shared household".

The petitioner's counsel said the definition of "aggrieved person" does not contain the crucial words at "any point of time". Hence the past relationship should be excluded. But the judge rejected the argument.