AFZAL UDDIN AHMAD Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Sri S.F.A. Naqvi, learned counsel who has appeared in support of this petition and the learned A.G.A.

(2.) THIS petition lays challenge to certain orders passed by the Additional Sessions Judge and the Judicial Magistrate in proceedings lodged under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act, 2005").

(3.) BY the order dated 21st May, 2012, the preliminary objections taken by the petitioners herein were rejected by the Judicial Magistrate. This order was partly affirmed in appeal by the Additional Sessions Judge by his order dated 17th January, 2015. The preliminary objections which were taken and urged by the petitioners before the courts below were that the proceedings had been wrongly taken cognizance of by the Chief Judicial Magistrate and that the proceedings could not be continued in the absence of the husband of the opposite party No. 2 being arrayed as a party -respondent. It was further urged that the female members of the family had been wrongly impleaded in the proceedings inasmuch as the Act, 2005 did not warrant any action or direction being taken or made against female members. Insofar as this aspect of the matter is concerned, the Additional Sessions Judge has accepted the contention of the petitioners by holding that female members cannot be arrayed as party -respondents in the proceedings taken under the Act, 2005. However, both the courts below have chosen to reject the other preliminary objections taken by the petitioners. It is in the above background that this petition came to be filed before this Court.