Roping in-laws who live separately abuse of law: Bombay HC

Last year, their daughter-in-law had filed a case of domestic violence against the husband and also roped in her in-laws.

The petitioners, from south India, told the court that their son and his wife have always lived separately and they had never accepted their daughter-in-law, who was from north India.

The court, in its order, said that this is a “peculiar case where the love marriage between the two parties has gone awry and has resulted into a sour relationship…” The in-laws did not attend the wedding, which had taken place on April 14, 2004.

Justice Bharati H Dangre, while allowing the petition, observed: “…the applicant who is aggrieved by the conduct of the husband, there is no impediment in proceeding against him under the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act 2005. However, roping of the present applicants (in-laws) by Respondent No.1, (daughter in-law) when she has never shared any household with them and was never in a domestic relationship them, amounts to a clear abuse of process of law.”