The Bombay High Court has held that a wife cannot be entitled to seek maintenance from her estranged husband under the Domestic Violence Act unless she has actually been subjected to any of the acts or conduct defined as "domestic violence" under the Act.
In a judgment pronounced earlier last week, Justice Bharati Dangre held that a wife could not be entitled to maintenance under the Act merely because a discord had developed in the marriage.
Instead, the wife, seeking such maintenance, will qualify as an aggrieved person entitled to maintenance only if "she alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent husband."
Justice Dangre held that, thus, it was clear that "granting of relief was dependent upon one of the most important aspects, namely, that the said relief was being granted to an aggrieved person who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence."
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