Karnataka High Court: M Nagaprasanna J. allowed the petition and directed to dispose the application seeking maintenance, within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of this order.
The petitioner filed an application invoking Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (‘DV Act’ ) on several allegations which are not under challenge before the Court. The petitioner filed this application seeking a direction by issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus to the Metropolitan Magistrate Traffic Court-III, Bangalore to dispose of the interlocutory/main application filed under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 in a Criminal Miscellaneous application within three months.
Counsel for petitioner contended that every application accompanying the main application should be decided by the learned Magistrate within three months from the date of its presentation in terms of Section 12 DV Act.
The Court observed that sub-section (5) of Section 12 DV Act mandates that every application filed under the Act shall be disposed of by the Court within sixty days (60 days) of the date of its presentation. The order sheet reveals that the application was filed on 12-11-2021 seeking maintenance but 60 days have passed by yet the order sheet does not demonstrate any consideration of the application.
The Court thus held “the petitioner is entitled to a mandamus at the hands of this Court or a direction to the Magistrate to dispose of the application for maintenance expeditiously.” [Rajamma H v. Thimmaiah V, 2022 SCC OnLine KAR 1009, decided on 09-06-2022]
*EDITORIAL NOTE:
For disposal of application filed under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Section 12(5) mandates the time limit of 60 days from the date of presentation and not 6 months.
Appearances
For petitioner- Mr Ragavendra Gowda K. and Mr Mohan Kumar D.