The Madras high court has said that even foreigners can invoke Domestic Violence Act, 2005 in Indian courts and that the residence of women is immaterial.
A single judge bench was hearing a case of an American couple holding Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards. The court has dismissed a plea moved by the husband seeking quashing of a domestic violence complaint filed by his wife in a Mahila court in Chennai. The husband had contended that he had obtained an ex-parte decree for divorce as well as custody of their adolescent twin boys from the Circuit Court in Farifax County in the USA.
Justice S M Subramaniam observed that Indian courts cannot shut out an independent consideration of the matter just because a foreign court has taken a particular view. The couple had been married in Chennai and it was registered under the provisions of the Hindu Marriages Act, 1955.
In orders passed on February 1, the court pointed out that under section 27 of the Domestic Violence Act, protection is extended to those who are temporary residents of India and Article 21 of the Constitution of India extends this protection even to a “person” who may not be a citizen of the country. “Thus looking from any angle, the respondent, who is aggrieved, is entitled to get protection under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005,” the court said.