NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has said that a father-in-law cannot be held liable for domestic violence merely for failing to control the conduct of his adult son.
Justice Madhu Jain made the observation while dismissing a woman's petition against a lower court's decision not to proceed against her father-in-law over allegations of domestic violence.
The judge held that the father-in-law had no participation in the alleged matrimonial misconduct.
"The father-in-law had no participation in the alleged matrimonial misconduct… A father cannot be made liable under the DV Act merely because he did not control the conduct of his adult son," the judge said.
The court observed that Section 3 of the Domestic Violence (DV) Act covers conduct that causes or threatens physical or mental harm, including verbal, emotional and economic abuse, “but the mere existence of a domestic relationship between the parties was not enough to invoke it”.
The judge also noted that the woman and her father-in-law were partners in a firm. While a commercial dispute does not fall outside the scope of Section 3, the petitioner must show that she was denied a resource protected by the DV Act, the court said.
“The facts in the present case did show any threat of domestic violence by the father-in-law, and while the petitioner alleged his conduct amounted to ‘insult, ridicule, humiliation or threat’, no facts were stated to support the claim. The words 'insulted', 'shouted' and 'abused' are conclusions. Without the facts underlying them, they do not make out verbal or emotional abuse under Section 3,” the judge said.