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Protection & residence orders

Protection under the Domestic Violence Act

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 is civil legislation, not a criminal prosecution — and that is its strength. It is designed to produce practical orders quickly: a right to stay in the home, an order to stop the violence, and money to live on.

Protection under the Domestic Violence Act — Advocate Pravesh Prasad Joshi, Dehradun

Written by Dehradun, Uttarakhand Last reviewed August 2026

What counts as domestic violence

The definition is deliberately wide and is not limited to physical assault. It includes physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse, and economic abuse — including depriving a woman of financial resources she is entitled to, or of access to the shared household.

The Act protects a woman in a domestic relationship — wives, and also mothers, sisters, daughters and women in relationships in the nature of marriage.

The orders available

A Magistrate may pass a combination of orders, and in practice they are usually sought together:

  • Protection order — restraining further acts of violence, and contact where appropriate.
  • Residence order — securing the right to reside in the shared household, or requiring alternative accommodation to be provided.
  • Monetary relief — for maintenance, loss of earnings, medical expenses and losses caused.
  • Custody order — interim custody of children.
  • Compensation order — for injuries, including mental torture and emotional distress.

The right to the shared household

A woman cannot simply be put out of the shared household. The right to reside exists regardless of whether she has any ownership interest in it, and the Supreme Court has confirmed that a shared household can include premises belonging to relatives of the husband where the family has lived as a household. This is often the single most valuable relief in the Act.

How an application is made

An application is made to the Magistrate, and may be routed through a Protection Officer or a registered service provider. The Act contemplates that the first hearing be fixed within three days and the application disposed of within sixty days — timelines in practice depend on the court's list, but the intent is speed. Breach of a protection order is itself a criminal offence.

Weighing it up

Every remedy costs something as well as giving something. Both sides, plainly.

What it gives you

  • It produces practical orders, quicklyA right to stay in the home, an order to stop, money to live on. It is designed for real life rather than for punishment.
  • It is not a prosecutionBeing civil in nature, it does not carry the all-or-nothing quality of a criminal case, and it does not automatically criminalise the whole family.
  • The residence right is powerfulThe right to reside in the shared household exists regardless of ownership. For a woman with nowhere to go, this is often the most valuable relief in Indian family law.
  • The definition is wideEconomic and emotional abuse count. A woman deprived of money and access to her home is covered even where nobody has ever raised a hand.
  • Everything in one applicationProtection, residence, money and interim custody can be sought together rather than across four files.

What it costs you

  • The timelines are aspirationalSixty days is what the Act contemplates. Reality depends on the court's list, and the gap between the statute and the calendar is wide.
  • Living under a residence order is grimThe order secures the roof. It does not make the household civil. Sharing a home with people ordered by a court to tolerate you is its own daily ordeal.
  • Enforcement needs you to go backBreach is an offence, but somebody has to complain, prove it and attend. The burden falls on the person already exhausted.
  • It hardens the wider disputeLike any application, it generates counter-litigation and forecloses easy settlement.
  • Monetary relief overlapsIt is adjusted against other maintenance, not added to it — a point that disappoints people who expected both.

What it looks like in practice

The part that is rarely written down — what the days, the queues and the waiting actually feel like.

The application, and the wait

The application is made to the Magistrate, often routed through a Protection Officer. The Act contemplates a first hearing within three days; the honest position is that this depends on the list. Ask for interim orders at the outset — waiting for final relief while living in the situation the application describes is exactly what the interim provisions exist to prevent.

The residence order is what most women actually need and least expect to get. It does not require ownership. The Supreme Court has confirmed that the shared household can include premises belonging to the husband's relatives where the family lived as a household.

Keep a contemporaneous record. Dated notes, medical records, messages, complaints made at the time. Abuse that was reported when it happened is believed; abuse first described two years later in an application is contested as an afterthought.

The part that is not legal

The hardest question in this area is rarely legal. It is where a woman will sleep next week, who will mind the children while she attends court, and whether her own family will take her in. The law provides an order; it does not provide a household.

Shelter homes, Protection Officers and service providers exist and are underused, often because nobody has explained that they exist. Where the immediate need is safety rather than adjudication, those routes matter more than the application does.

Where there are children, an interim custody order in the same application avoids a separate proceeding — but it must be asked for.

Mistakes that recur

The same avoidable errors arrive in chamber after chamber. Most cost far more than any fee.

  1. Leaving the shared household and then applying. Re-entry is far harder than remaining, and the residence right is easier to protect than to restore.
  2. Not asking for interim relief at the first hearing.
  3. Relying on memory instead of a contemporaneous record.
  4. Assuming DV monetary relief is additional to Section 125 maintenance rather than adjusted against it.
  5. Not reporting a breach of a protection order, so a pattern of non-compliance establishes itself.

Common questions

Is a DV Act case a criminal case?

The proceeding is civil in nature and produces civil reliefs, though it is heard by a Magistrate. Breach of a protection order, however, is a criminal offence.

Can I stay in my husband's family home?

The right to reside in the shared household is protected regardless of ownership, and courts have held that a shared household may include premises owned by relatives where the family lived as a household. Residence orders are commonly sought for exactly this reason.

Can I seek DV Act relief and maintenance together?

Yes. Monetary relief under the DV Act can run alongside maintenance under Section 125 CrPC / Section 144 BNSS, though courts adjust to prevent duplication of the same relief.

This guide sets out general information about the law as it applies in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. It is not legal advice, and it is no substitute for advice on your own facts. The law changes, and how it applies varies from case to case.

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