New Delhi: Daughters-in-law cannot get their mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law or any other woman relative summoned to court under the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, a Delhi city court has ruled.
Quashing orders passed by a lower court in a case between Urvashi Rastogi and her husband Kapil, the sessions court ruled that female respondents cannot be summoned in the case.
According to the Act, a respondent means any adult male who is, or has been in a domestic relationship with the aggrieved.
Accepting arguments by Kapil’s lawyer, the court set aside the lower court’s summons against Urvashi’s mother-in-law.
The Rastogis, working with an insurance firm, are locked in a court battle after Urvashi reportedly refused to live with her widowed mother-in-law.
Since Kapil refused to leave his ailing mother, Urvashi allegedly filed a dowry harassment case before moving the court under the Act.