A live-in partner can seek maintenance under the Domestic Violence Act, the Supreme Court has said in a recent order.
The 2005 Act provides an “efficacious remedy” for maintenance even if the victim is not a legally wedded wife, a Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices U.U. Lalit and K.M. Joseph observed.
Entitled to relief
“In fact, under the provisions of the DVC Act, 2005 the victim i.e. estranged wife or live-in-partner would be entitled to more relief than what is contemplated under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, namely, to a shared household also,” the court pointed out in a short order on October 30.
What would be significant to note is that economic abuse also constitutes domestic violence under the 2005 Act, the Bench noted in the order.
Published - November 01, 2018 12:29 am IST
