shared household
Section 2(s) of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 defines a shared household as one where the aggrieved person lives or at any stage has lived in a domestic relationship with the respondent, whether the house is owned or rented by either or both of them, or belongs to the joint family of which the respondent is a member. Section 17 gives every woman in a domestic relationship the right to reside in it, whether or not she has any title in it.
In Satish Chander Ahuja (2020), the Supreme Court held that a shared household need not belong to the husband; it may be owned by his relatives, such as his parents, overruling the narrower view in S.R. Batra v. Taruna Batra (2007). The right is a right of residence, not ownership, and can be balanced against the owners' rights.
Example
The daughter-in-law could not be evicted from her parents-in-law's house without due process, since it was her shared household.
In Indian law
- Sections 2(s), 17 and 19, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
- Satish Chander Ahuja v. Sneha Ahuja, 2020 INSC 599: shared household need not be owned by the husband
See also
domestic violence · maintenance
Read more in the study notes
- Burden of proof: exceptions, special knowledge and statutory shifts (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
- Presumptions in dowry death, abetment of suicide and rape (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
- Restitution of conjugal rights and judicial separation (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
- Maintenance, alimony and dowry prohibition (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
- Succession to a Hindu female and stridhana (Family Law I - Hindu Law)
- Iddat and the legal effects of divorce (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)