Legislature set a time limit of 60 days for a Domestic Violence case to be disposed as prescribed under sec 12(5) of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Here are the Rules made under this Act. But the ground reality is totally different. And I decided to address this issue. Head-on.

NOTE: Since too much thought was going into decide if this matter has to dealt as a WP or a WP(PIL), I decided to do BOTH. First a WP/CrlP, for my individual case and then a WP(PIL) for public benefit.

RESULTS:

Won the individual battle here…
Won the PIL battle too despite it getting dismissed by the Honourables. Read further down this page.

Go here for other cases I dealt with personally…

Law in question (as it stands today):

12. Application to Magistrate.—
(1) An aggrieved person or a Protection Officer or any other person on behalf of the aggrieved person may present an application to the Magistrate seeking one or more reliefs under this Act:
Provided that before passing any order on such application, the Magistrate shall take into consideration any domestic incident report received by him from the Protection Officer or the service provider.
(2) xxxxx
(3) xxxxx
(4) xxxxx
(5) The Magistrate shall Endeavour to dispose of every application made under sub-section (1) within a period of sixty days from the date of its first hearing.

Support/Inspiration from some High Courts:

• Andhra Pradesh High Court: https://www.shadesofknife.in/naresh-kumar-yalla-vs-state-of-telangana-on-21-jul-2022/
• Karnataka High Court: https://www.shadesofknife.in/rajamma-h-vs-thimmaiah-v-on-09-jun-2022/
• Telangana High Court: https://www.shadesofknife.in/p-parvathi-vs-pathloth-mangamma-on-7-jul-2022/ [Guidelines passed]
• To-do: Find more useful judgments
• To-do: Contact Chairpersons of State Women Commissions of various States and ask for timely implementation of DV Act.
• To-do: Find oldest ‘pending’ DVC cases in each of the 13 districts of AP, to emphasize the traversity.

Current Status in AP:

Action Taken:

Filed RTI to all 13 District Judge Court Complexes in Andhra Pradesh seeking number of cases closed within 60 working days as prescribed u/s 12(5). If no cases disposed off in 3 years, strike down Sec 12(5) from the Act.

On 2022-06-28:

Sent Reg Posts to all 13 District Judge Courts in AP, asking for information on

1. how many DV cases were filed in 2019, 2020 and 2021 in their jurisdictional district,
2. how may were disposed in 2019, 2020 and 2021 in their jurisdictional district, and
3. how many were disposed within 60 days, in 2019, 2020 and 2021 in their jurisdictional district.

They have 30 days time to reply to me. Will file the PIL in August.

As expected the DV cases closed within statutory 60 days is abysmally low.

Parties:

Petitioner-in-person: Sandeep Pamarati
Respondents: From High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Union of India and State of Andhra Pradesh

1. 1. High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Represented by the Registrar General
      AP High Court Buildings,
      Nelapadu, Amaravathi,
      Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh
      PIN: 522202
   2. Union of India, Represented by its Secretary,
      Ministry of Law and Justice, Dept. of Legal Affairs,
      A Wing, 4th Floor, Shastri Bhawan,
      Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi, 110001
   3. Union of India, Represented by its Secretary,
      Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
      Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road,
      New Delhi, 110001
   4. Union of India, Represented by its Secretary,
      Ministry of Women and Child Development
      Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road,
      New Delhi, 110001
   5. Union of India, Represented by its Secretary,
      Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
      Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road,
      New Delhi, 110001
   6. State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep. by its Principal Secretary,
      Home Department, AP Secretariat,
      Velagapudi, Amaravathi, Guntur District, 522503
   7. State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep. by Secretary to Government,
      Law (Legislative Affairs and Justice) Department, AP Secretariat,
      Velagapudi, Amaravathi, Guntur District, 522503
   8. State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep. by its Principal Secretary,
      Department of Women Development & Child Welfare
      Office of Special Commissioner, 4th Floor Jampani Towers,
      Lodge Centre, Amaravathi Road, Guntur-522006
   9. National Commission for Women, Rep by Chairperson
      Plot No 21, FC33, Institutional Area,
      Jasola, New Delhi, Delhi 110025
   10. Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Women, Rep by Chairperson
       Flat No. 506, 4th Floor, MGM Capital Building, Dr. YSR Arogya Sri Complex,
       Chinakakani, Mangalagiri, Guntur. Pin : 522503
   11. National Judicial Academy, Rep by The Director,
       Bhadbhada Road, Suraj Nagar PO,
       Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462044
   12. A.P. Judicial Academy, Rep by The Director,
       Gandhi Nagar, Nehru Nagar Colony, West Marredpally,
       Secunderabad, Telangana 500026
   13. Law Commission of India, Rep by The Member Secretary,
       Lok Nayak Bhavan, ‘B’ Wing, 2nd & 4th Floor,
       Khan Market, New Delhi -110003
   14. Bar Council of India, Rep by the Secretary,
       21, Rouse Avenue, Institutional Area,
       New Delhi Pin Code – 110002
   15. Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by The Secretary
       Ground Floor, A.P. High Court Building,
       Nelapadu, Amaravati, Guntur,  Andhra Pradesh
       PIN: 522 239

Remedy:

File a writ u/Act 226 read with Art 227 seeking direction from High Court of AP to all the Trial Courts in the State which deal with Domestic Violence cases, to mandatorily invoke the time limit of 60 days to dispose of a DV case, as prescribed under sec 12(5), whenever an application for interim reliefs, under sec 23(1), was prayed/sought for also in the spirit of Sec 309 CrPC.

Dilemma: To file WP or WP(PIL)? Why not, both?

Drafting: WP Done in the form of CrlP r/w Art 226 and 227 here. WP(PIL) is pending (u/Art 226 and 227)

Reliefs:

1. Call for records for the DV cases are disposed in 60 days from Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Chittoor, West Godavari, Kadapa, Krishna Districts as they did not give data to RTI applications.
2. Acknowledge the total failure of the implementation of Statutory Compliance of Sec 12(5) of PWDV Act.
3. Appoint an amicus/LCI to study reasons for this failure in State of AP.
4. Direct all District Unit Heads to ensure the DV cases are disposed in 60 days (To tackle such scenarios, you can use the Supreme Court judgment to force the Trial judge to come up with case calendar for the entire case, which is available here)
5. Setup a periodic monitoring mechanism to report the delays in DV case disposal publicly on AP High Court website.

Supporting Case laws:

1. Mewa Singh and others Vs Sukhjeet Kaur on 29 April 2013 (PHHC: appearance of respondents disposed off)
2. Ayishabi Vs Shahul Hameed on 16 July, 2014 (KerHC: Dispose within 3 months)
3. Kuppusamy Vs Radhika on 21 July, 2017 (MadHC: Dispose DVC in 2 months)
4. Sushila Devi Vs Vikas Kumar Singhal And Ors on 9 Feb 2018 (RajHC: Dispose within 2 months)
5. Tillottama Kumari Vs State of Bihar and Ors on 16 May 2019 (PatHC: Dispose DVC in 6 weeks)
6. Maya and Ors Vs State of U.P. and Ors on 19 Mar 2021 (AllHC: Dispose DVC in 2 months)
7. Suyalaly and Anr Vs Alphin Jeyasingh and Ors on 29 Nov 2021 (MadHC: Dispose within 2 months)
8. Vani Santhosh Babu Vs Vijaya Laxmi Vani on 3 Mar 2022 (TelHC: Dispose in 60 days)
9. Rajamma H Vs Thimmaiah V on 09 Jun 2022 (KarHC: Dispose DVC within 2 weeks)
10. Mrugesh Wasnik Vs Shweta Mrugesh on 22 Jun 2022 (BomHC: Dispose DVC within 3 months)
11. P Parvathi Vs Pathloth Mangamma on 7 Jul 2022 (TelHC: Directions issued regd appearance of respondents)
12. Naresh Kumar Yalla Vs State of Telangana on 21 Jul 2022 (TelHC: Dispose DVC in 1 month)
13. Sandeep Pamarati Vs State of AP and Anr on 29 Sep 2022 (APHC: Disposal of DVC in 60 days/3 months (around 20 working days in a month); my first win AP HC!)

Writ Public Interest Petition:

Filed this PIL [WP(PIL)/182/2022] in Oct 2022 but got listed on 14 Nov 2022 before Court-1 of AP HC. Prepared well to argue the matter and hoped to get notices issued to 15 respondents on the petition. But the ;category (For Orders of Court) under which this cases was listed’ and ‘no final WP number given’ made it clear to me that this will be dismissed.

Case status:

I went to podium and began with intro as PIP and then informed there is no personal interest in this PIL and how. That’s all… It was dismissed as not maintainable. Not sure what legal reasons were mentioned in the dismissal order. CJ said, tomorrow I will come with a petition to early dispose another kind of case type. I don’t think this is a legal reason.

Here is the Writ Petition Copy:

Here is the dismissal order.

Interesting update…

Just after a week from date of the dismissal of my WP-PIL, the following Circular gets issued by AP HC in Nov 2022. Interesting, because earlier circular, issued in Oct 2022, did NOT have a deadline!!! Seems my now-dismissed-PIL is working it’s magic.

2022-Oct-20 Circular:

…. and then…

2022-Nov-23 Circular:

—

The following is the circular forwarded to Anantapur District Judiciary.

I AM HAPPY AND SMILING.

MASTER LIST here.