Swarna Shukla –
Published On: December 06, 2021 at 20:00 IST
A record of domestic violence was submitted by an estranged daughter-in-law against her In-Laws, a businessman 83-year-old Breach Candy and his 76-year-old spouse. The family court stated that there was no domestic relationship between the two parties under the Act on Women’s Safety from Domestic Violence (PWDVA) as both were not residing in the same house.
The Court upheld the Plea of the old couple’s lawyer, Kanupirya Kejriwal, requesting their names to be removed from the woman’s application. According to court records, being a family member and cohabitation are two completely different ideas.
The 42-year-old woman claimed that she was mentally tortured by her husband and in-laws, and demanded compensation of 25 Crore rupees and an apartment of her choice on Nepean Sea Street. The couple who are in the midst of a divorce battle even have a child. The woman currently lives on Nepean Sea Street with her mother, her father and son.
The Court accepted Kejriwal’s arguments that mere visits by the in-laws to the premises where the woman was formerly residing with their son, was not sufficient to hold that they shared the same household or were in a domestic relationship with her.
Kejriwal also submitted that the woman herself had accepted that they had always lived in separate homes. Until the woman and her husband separated in 2017, they lived at Mahalaxmi. Their building also housed the father-in-law’s office that he visited daily and a temple that her mother-in-law frequented.
The woman also claimed her father-in-law was controlled the business, thus causing economic abuse to her as she had to ask him permission for various expenses. She has also alleged that her in-laws never protected or supported her when her husband used to mistreat her. Further she has also claimed that her in-laws intruded in her life on a daily basis.