(Guest)

Whether woman and minor can be respondent in dv act

Whether woman and minor can be respondent in domestic violence proceeding?

Also, the expression “adult” would have the same effect of
stultifying orders that can be passed under the aforesaid
sections. It is not difficult to conceive of a non-adult 16 or 17
year old member of a household who can aid or abet the
commission of acts of domestic violence, or who can evict or
help in evicting or excluding from a shared household an
aggrieved person. Also, a residence order which may be
passed under Section 19(1)(c) can get stultified if a 16 or
17 year old relative enters the portion of the shared household

in which the aggrieved person resides after a restraint
order is passed against the respondent and any of his
adult relatives. Examples can be multiplied, all of which would
only lead to the conclusion that even the expression “adult” in
the main part is Section 2(q) is restrictive of the object sought to
be achieved by the kinds of orders that can be passed under
the Act and must also be, therefore, struck down, as this word
contains the same discriminatory vice that is found with its
companion expression “male”.
We, therefore, set aside the impugned judgment of the
Bombay High Court and declare that the words “adult male” in
Section 2(q) of the 2005 Act will stand deleted since these
words do not square with Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Consequently, the proviso to Section 2(q), being rendered
otiose, also stands deleted. We may only add that the
impugned judgment has ultimately held, in paragraph 27, that

the two complaints of 2010, in which the three female
respondents were discharged finally, were purported to be
revived, despite there being no prayer in Writ Petition
No.300/2013 for the same.
REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 10084 of 2016
(ARISING OUT OF SLP (CIVIL) NO. 9132 OF 2015)
HIRAL P. HARSORA AND ORS.
VERSUS
KUSUM NAROTTAMDAS HARSORA
AND ORS.
Dated:October 6, 2016.