CHENNAI: In a significant order, the Madras High Court has held that petitions filed before it under Section 482 of the CrPC (or Section 582 of BNSS) to quash proceedings initiated under Chapter IV of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act are not maintainable, if the proceedings are civil in nature and have not assumed the character of criminality under the Act. The ruling was recently given by Justice N Sathish Kumar, citing an earlier order of a full bench of the HC holding the same in the Arul Daniel vs Suganya case in 2022.
The judge dismissed a petition filed by a woman’s mother-in-law, brother-in-law and his wife, seeking to quash the complaint filed by her under Section 12 of the DV Act in a Tiruvallur court earlier this year.
The complainant, S Vennila, had married NS Kirankumar in 2018. She had alleged that her husband was in a relationship with another woman and tortured her. Doubting the maintainability of the petitions filed by her in-laws, due to the ruling in Arul Daniel vs Suganya case, the registry of the high court listed it for deciding the maintainability, which came up before Justice Sathish Kumar.
The petitioners’ counsel cited an order of the Supreme Court in a case that held that High Courts can quash the proceedings through powers vested under Section 482 of the CrPC. However, Justice Sathish Kumar cited several other judgments of the apex court to hold that reliefs granted to a complainant under Chapter IV of the DV Act remained civil in nature and did not take the character of criminality under Section 31 of the DV Act.
In the present case, the judge said, the proceedings initiated under the DV Act by the subordinate court have neither assumed criminality nor reached the stage of taking cognisance under Section 32 of the Act. Hence, these proceedings are not amenable for challenge, he said, while dismissing the petitions. He further directed the registry to not number any petition under Section 482 of the CrPC seeking to quash proceedings initiated under Section 12 of the DV Act, if the same have not reached the stage of taking cognisance under Section 31 and Section 32 of the Act.
