No Maintenance Under DV Act If No Evidence Of Maltreatment Or Violence: Himachal Pradesh HC [Read Judgment]

The high court observed that the complaint nowhere suggests that maltreatment and violence as defined under the Act was ever meted to the complainant.

The High Court of Himachal Pradesh, in Anil Kumar vs Shashi Bala, has held that if there is no evidence with regard to maltreatment or violence, no order of maintenance can be granted invoking the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.

In this case, though the appellate court found that no evidence has been brought on record to demonstrate violence, partly allowed the appeal, and held that since complainant has to live and maintain herself and she has no independent source of income, she is entitled to monetary relief under Section 20 of the Act.

On appeal, the high court observed that the complaint nowhere suggests that maltreatment and violence as defined under the Act was ever meted to the complainant.

The court also observed that overwhelming evidence is available on record suggestive of the fact that the complainant herself had left the house.

Observing that the appellate court ‘got swayed by emotions’, the bench presided by Justice Sandeep Sharma said: “Since there was no evidence with regard to maltreatment or violence, learned appellate Court below ought to not have granted any amount on account of maintenance.”

Read the Judgment here.