Limitation Period U/S 468 CrPC Not Applicable To Application U/S 12 Domestic Violence Act : Supreme Court
Case: Kamatchi vs Lakshmi Narayanan
Coram: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE UDAY UMESH LALIT, HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE S. RAVINDRA BHAT, HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA
Case No.: CrA 627 OF 2022
Court Observation:
The Supreme Court has held that the limitation period prescribed under Section 468 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not applicable for the filing of an application by an aggrieved woman under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
The Supreme Court held as erroneous a judgment of the Madras High Court which held that the Section 12 application ought to have been filed within one year of the acts of alleged domestic violence.
“Filing of an application under Section 12 of the Act cannot be equated to lodging of a complaint or initiation of prosecution”, the Court observed. “There would never be a starting point for limitation from the date of application under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005”, the court added.
“The provisions of the Act contemplate filing of an application under Section 12 to initiate the proceedings before the concerned Magistrate. After hearing both sides and after taking into account the material on record, the Magistrate may pass an appropriate order under Section 12 of the Act. It is only the breach of such order which constitutes an offence as is clear from Section 31 of the Act. Thus, if there be any offence committed in terms of the provisions of the Act, the limitation prescribed under Section 468 of the Code will apply from the date of commission of such offence. By the time an application is preferred under Section 12 of the Act, there is no offence committed in terms of the provisions of the Act
and as such there would never be a starting point for limitation from the date of application under Section 12 of the Act. Such a starting point for limitation would arise only and only after there is a breach of an order passed under Section 12 of the Act.”
“It is thus clear that the High Court wrongly equated filing of an application under Section 12 of the Act to lodging of a complaint or initiation of prosecution. In our considered view, the High Court was in error in observing that the application under Section 12 of the Act ought to have been filed within a period of one year of the alleged acts of domestic violence.”
“The ratio in that case applies when a Magistrate takes cognizance of an offence and issues process, in which event instead of going back to the Magistrate, the remedy lies in filing petition under Section 482 of the Code. The scope of notice under Section 12 of the Act is to call for a response from the respondent in terms of the Statute so that after considering rival submissions, appropriate order can be issued. Thus, the matter stands on a different footing and the dictum in Adalat Prasad would not get attracted at a stage when a notice is issued under Section 12 of the Act.”
Limitation Period U/S 468 CrPC Not Applicable To Application U/S 12 Domestic Violence Act : Supreme Court
