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Kamatchi vs Lakshmi Narayanan

Criminal Appeal · 2022 INSC 422Decided 13 Apr 2022
Criminal Appeal No. 627 of 2022
Uday Umesh Lalit · Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha

Background

Kamatchi filed an application under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 against her husband, father-in-law and sister-in-law, alleging a series of incidents of dowry harassment and domestic violence dating back to 2007-2008, plus a fresh incident in 2018 when she was turned away from the matrimonial home. The Madras High Court quashed the proceedings against the in-laws but, separately, also quashed the proceedings against the husband, reasoning that since she had left the matrimonial home in 2008, her 2018 application was filed far beyond the one-year limitation period under Section 468 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and was an abuse of process.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed Kamatchi's appeal and restored the proceedings against the husband. It held that the High Court had wrongly equated an application under Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act with a criminal "complaint" that must be filed within limitation under Section 468 CrPC. Since only a breach of a protection order made under Section 12 is punishable as an offence (under Section 31 of the Act), no "offence" exists at the time of filing a Section 12 application itself. There is therefore no limitation clock running against the application when it is first filed; limitation under Section 468 CrPC would only ever start from an actual breach of a court order under the Act. Whether the alleged decade-old gap in incidents undermines Kamatchi's claim on the merits (e.g., whether the conduct amounted to a "continuing" pattern) was left for the Magistrate to examine on the facts, not decided as a threshold time-bar.

Lesson Learnt

An application seeking protection or reliefs under the Domestic Violence Act is not itself treated as a criminal complaint subject to the one-year limitation for taking cognizance of an offence: a survivor cannot be shut out at the door merely because years have passed since the alleged incidents, though the delay may still be weighed on the substance of the claim.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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