ABDUL RAHMAN Vs. K.P. TAHIRA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE first respondent is wife of the revision petitioner. The 4th respondent is his another wife and respondents 2 and 3 are his sisters. The first respondent initiated proceedings against the revision petitioner and respondents 2 to 4 under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (for short 'the Act'). She claimed that the revision petitioner and those respondents subjected her to domestic violence. On the allegation that he misappropriated her gold ornaments worth 100 sovereigns she claimed return of the ornaments or payment of their value. Her another allegation was that the revision petitioner and respondents 1 to 3 drove her out of her shared household. She prayed for an order restraining them from dispossessing her of it and from entering the portion of the house which is in her occupation and from alienating or encumbering the property. She also prayed for protection order under Section 18 of the Act. The learned Magistrate entered a finding that respondents 2 and 4 were unnecessarily made respondents. He took the view that the first respondent is not entitled to protection order under Section 18 of the Act nor is she entitled to get an order restraining the revision petitioner from alienating or encumbering the house which she claimed to be a shared household. He refused to grant the relief of return of gold ornaments or payment of their value. The only relief granted by him is maintenance to her and her minor child. The revision petitioner filed Crl.A. No. 239 of 2012 and the first respondent Crl.A. No. 231 of 2012. The learned Sessions Judge dismissed the revision petitioner's appeal and allowed the first respondent's appeal in part. He allowed her claim for return of gold ornaments, which was fixed at 20 sovereigns and her claim for prohibitory order in respect of the household. Legality of this order is challenged in this revision petition.

(2.) HEARD the learned counsel on both sides.

(3.) ANOTHER relief denied by the learned Magistrate and granted by the Sessions Judge is a direction prohibiting the revision petitioner from alienating the house which is said to be the shared household of the first respondent, and from encumbering it. The learned Magistrate denied the relief on the ground that the evidence proves that the house was not a shared household. Section 2(s) of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act defines shared household as follows: