Right to safe and healthy living -a part of the right to residence in the matrimonial home: Delhi High court.

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The Delhi High Court in its order last month in the case of Niharika Ghosh VS Shankar Ghosh. ruled that the right to residence in a matrimonial home under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, also includes the right to safe and healthy living. Court observation came while hearing a plea by a woman against the lower court’s order refusing to give her any relief against her allegations of harassment by her husband and mother-in-law. The trial court, while making the decision observed that there was no instance where her husband and in-laws harassed and tortured her, thus disposing of her application for interim relief.

The wife in the petition submitted that the trial court, while disposing of the woman’s application for interim relief, had overlooked the fact that her husband and her in-laws had been feeding street dogs in their shared household in violation of her fundamental rights, with the intention to cause her harassment and mental torture. While hearing the matrimonial dispute in the court, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said that it goes without saying that the right to residence in a matrimonial home under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 also would subsume within itself the definition of “right to safe and healthy living” too, hence requiring interference by this court”. The court also, while passing its order, observed that the lower court ought to have prima facie considered, balancing equities between the parties. The Council for the petitioner submitted that the relationship between the petitioner and her husband and mother-in-law has turned rancorous.  The Council had also submitted photographs of the street dogs being fed by her in-laws and her husband in this shared household and argued that such an act of harassment could not be termed a trivial issue. A notice has been issued to the respondents to reply within 4 weeks and the next hearing of the case is in May 2023.

VAISHNAVI GOEL,6^TH SEMESTER, PUNJAB SCHOOL OF LAW, PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA

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