One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: Under Muslim personal law divorce is not the only route open to a woman, and it is often not the fastest one. A Muslim woman facing abuse can seek protection, residence and monetary orders under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and can separately seek dissolution of her marriage under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 on grounds that include cruelty. Police frequently treat these complaints as civil matters, and that is usually wrong advice, but it does mean the woman has to move the Magistrate herself rather than wait for a station diary entry.
Salim Ansari had been drinking since noon. When his wife Nasreen got back from her housekeeping shift at a bungalow in Kothrud, Pune, in early March 2025, he was sitting on the floor of their one-room tenement shouting at the children about money. Nothing new in that. Nothing the local police station was willing to register either, as she had already been told twice.
Nasreen's co-worker Shabana Qureshi lived four doors down the same lane. Her husband Imran had put her in hospital once, back in November 2024. A group of neighbours, including their employer Prakash Deshmukh, marched to the police station, and Imran signed a paper and moved out. That was the separation. It held for about six weeks. Then the calls started again, at odd hours, and he began waiting near the bus stop on Sinhagad Road.
Mr. Deshmukh first took both women to a general practitioner for advice. A fresh police complaint was suggested. Nothing moved. In March 2025 he brought both files to the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao. Advocate Sudhir Rao and his office filed applications under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 before the Judicial Magistrate, along with a petition for dissolution of Nasreen's marriage.
Protection orders and interim monetary relief came through within weeks, and Imran was restrained from contacting Shabana. Advocate Sudhir Rao's grounding in matrimonial and domestic violence practice is what got those orders moving where the earlier, general approach had stalled.
The account here comes from the employer who brought both women in. The husbands' version is not before the Chamber, and one side of a marriage is rarely the whole picture.
Key Facts of the Case
- Both women are Muslim, married under Muslim personal law, and live in Pune.
- Shabana Qureshi's husband left the
- Shabana Qureshi's husband left the shared home in November 2024 after a police complaint by their neighbours and their employer, and signed a paper at the station before moving out.
- That separation held for roughly six weeks. Contact resumed by phone at odd hours, and he later began waiting near the bus stop on Sinhagad Road.
- Nasreen's own complaints at the local police station were not registered. She had been told twice that this was a family matter.
- A general practitioner advised both women to file a fresh police complaint. Nothing moved.
- In March 2025 their employer brought both files to Advocate Sudhir Rao at the Supreme Court chamber.
- Applications under Section 12 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 were filed before the Judicial Magistrate, along with a petition for dissolution of Nasreen's marriage.
- Protection orders and interim monetary relief came through within weeks. Imran was restrained from contacting Shabana.
- The husbands' version is not on record. Everything above comes from the employer who brought the two women in.
What the police can and cannot do
Domestic violence is not a family matter to be settled at the station counter. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 was written precisely because that assumption kept women out of court for years. Nothing in it makes an FIR a precondition for relief.
That said, the police have duties here and they do not always perform them. Where the conduct described amounts to a cognizable offence, the station is expected to register the information under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Cruelty by a husband or his relatives is a separate offence under Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, though the conduct has to fit the definition. A shove during an argument, standing alone, may not.
If the station refuses to register, there are two moves that work better than arguing at the counter:
- Send the substance of the information in writing to the Superintendent of Police under Section 173 BNSS. Send it by registered post or email so you have proof.
- File a complaint before the Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS asking that the offence be investigated. The Magistrate can direct the police to register and investigate.
Neither of these is fast. A Section 175(3) BNSS complaint can take weeks to be listed, and the Magistrate may hear the police before passing any direction. If the immediate need is protection rather than punishment, the domestic violence route is usually quicker, which is why it was filed first in this matter.
Filing under Section 12 of the Domestic Violence Act
An application under Section 12 PWDVA goes directly to the Judicial Magistrate. No FIR is needed. No Protection Officer's report is a bar. The Magistrate ordinarily fixes the first date of hearing within three days of receiving the application, and the Act asks for disposal within sixty days from the first hearing, though in practice contested matters run longer.
The application can ask for:
- Protection orders under Section 18 — restraining the respondent from committing domestic violence, from communicating with her, from entering her place of work, and from alienating shared assets.
- Residence orders under Section 19, tied to the right to reside in the shared household under Section 17. A woman cannot be evicted from the shared household except by due process.
- Monetary relief under Section 20 — loss of earnings, medical expenses, damage to property, and maintenance for her and the children. Interim relief can be granted on an affidavit under Section 23, and in urgent cases ex parte.
- Custody orders under Section 21.
- Compensation under Section 22 for mental torture and emotional distress.
Three practical points matter more than the list.
First, jurisdiction is generous. Under Section 27 the application can be filed where the woman resides, where the respondent resides, or where the incident happened. A woman who has fled to her parents' town does not have to litigate in the town she left.
Second, in-laws can be respondents if they shared the household. The Act is not aimed only at husbands.
Third, proceedings are held in camera under Section 16, and a breach of a protection order is itself an offence under Section 31. That is what gives the order teeth. An appeal against an order lies to the Sessions Court under Section 29, ordinarily within thirty days.
Can a Muslim woman divorce her husband while a domestic violence case is pending?
Yes, and the two proceedings run side by side. Section 26 PWDVA expressly allows relief to be sought in other pending proceedings as well, so a civil suit and a Section 12 application do not cancel each other out. One does not wait for the other.
For dissolution, a Muslim woman is not confined to asking her husband for a talaq or to negotiating a khula.
Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939
Section 2 of the Act gives a Muslim woman a statutory right to a decree of dissolution on specific grounds. The ones that come up most often:
- Whereabouts of the husband unknown for four years.
- Failure to provide maintenance for two years.
- Failure to perform marital obligations, without reasonable cause, for three years.
- Imprisonment of the husband for seven years or more.
- Impotency at the time of marriage and continuing.
- Cruelty — which Section 2(viii) defines to include habitual assault, conduct that makes life miserable even without physical ill-treatment, association with women of ill repute, attempting to force her into an immoral life, disposing of her property, obstructing her religious practice, and unequal treatment where the husband has more than one wife.
This is a decree from the civil court, not a family court settlement, and it does not require the husband's consent. Where the ground is cruelty, medical records, complaint copies and witness accounts do the work. A general practitioner's note, even a short one, is better than nothing if it is contemporaneous.
Khula, and where it stands now
Khula is the wife's own right to seek separation. Classical position held that it required the husband's consent. Courts across several High Courts have since taken the view that where a marriage has irretrievably broken down, a woman cannot be forced to remain in it, and a decree can follow despite the husband's refusal. The law here is not uniform across all courts, and how a particular court treats it will depend on the facts and on the judge. If you are filing, a Section 2 petition under the 1939 Act is usually the cleaner route because the grounds are written into the statute.
Mahr and maintenance after divorce
Mahr is not the same thing as maintenance, and mixing the two up in a pleading costs time. Mahr is the sum fixed in the nikahnama. Where it is deferred, it is a debt the husband owes the wife, and it does not vanish because the marriage ended. It can be claimed in a civil suit. How much is recoverable, and when it falls due, depends on what the nikahnama says — if the document is in Urdu or in a form nobody at home can read, get it translated before you plead a figure, because the translation is what the court will work from.Maintenance is a separate claim. Under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, a divorced Muslim woman is entitled to a reasonable and fair provision and maintenance, and the Supreme Court in Danial Latifi v. Union of India (2001) read those words as not being confined to the iddat period alone — the obligation can run further where the husband's means allow. The iddat period itself is three menstrual cycles, or three months if she is not menstruating, and continues until delivery if she is pregnant.
Where the 1986 Act framework does not fit the facts, a claim under Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 — which replaces Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 — is the route a divorced woman of any faith uses to seek monthly maintenance. Whether a woman governed by the 1986 Act can run both at once is not settled the same way in every court. The safer course is to plead maintenance under the 1986 Act, keep Section 144 BNSS in reserve, and take a view once you know which court is hearing the matter.
One more thing worth knowing: an order under Section 20 of the Domestic Violence Act for interim maintenance does not stop just because a divorce petition is filed. It continues during the pendency of the Section 12 application, and it is enforceable as a Magistrate's order, which is a faster remedy than executing a civil decree.
What to collect before you file
Most applications that stall, stall on documents rather than on law. Assemble these in one folder before the first hearing:
- The nikahnama, with a translation if it is not in a language you read, and the marriage registration certificate if there is one.
- Proof of where you live now — rent agreement, electricity bill, or a letter from the person you are staying with. This decides jurisdiction under Section 27.
- Medical records, even a short prescription or OPD slip from the date of an injury. Contemporaneous is what matters, not exhaustive.
- Copies of every police complaint you filed, with the date and the name of the officer, or the acknowledgement if one was given. If nothing was given, note the date, time and which station you went to.
- Proof of his income or of his employment, however thin — an employer's name, a shop address, bank statements you lawfully have. Interim maintenance is assessed against his means, and a court cannot guess at what nobody pleads.
- Names and addresses of two or three witnesses — neighbours, a co-worker, a relative. The Act does not require them to file affidavits at the start, but you need them identified.
- Records of children's school fees, medical bills and household expenses if you are claiming for children.
If you fled with nothing, say so in the application. The absence of documents is itself a fact the Magistrate can take into account, and the Act allows an application supported by affidavit.
What happens first, and how long it takes
The Section 12 application is filed before the Judicial Magistrate. The Magistrate ordinarily fixes the first date of hearing within three days of receipt, and the Act asks for disposal within sixty days of the first hearing. Contested matters run past that. What usually arrives early is interim relief under Section 23 — a protection order, an order restraining contact, an interim maintenance figure. That is the part that changes a person's daily life, and it is why this route is filed before anything else. A Section 175(3) BNSS complaint asking a Magistrate to direct investigation, by contrast, can take weeks just to be listed.
Court fee on a Section 12 application is nominal. Lawyers' fees vary with how contested the matter becomes, whether the husband appears and opposes, and whether an appeal under Section 29 follows. Anyone who quotes you a single figure for the whole case, before knowing whether the other side will contest, is guessing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Muslim woman divorce her husband while a domestic violence case is pending?
Yes. Section 26 of the Domestic Violence Act expressly permits relief to be sought in other pending proceedings, and the two do not cancel each other out. A dissolution petition under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 proceeds in the civil court while the Section 12 application runs before the Magistrate. Neither waits for the other.
Do I need an FIR before I can apply under Section 12?
No. An FIR is not a precondition. The application goes directly to the Magistrate, and a Protection Officer's report is not mandatory either.
Can the police tell me it is a family matter and send me away?
They can say it, but it is not a legal answer where the conduct amounts to a cognizable offence, and it is never an answer to a domestic violence application. If the station will not register, put the substance in writing to the Superintendent of Police under Section 173 BNSS and keep proof of dispatch, or move a complaint under Section 175(3) BNSS before the Magistrate.
Can I file in the city I moved to, or must I file where the marriage home was?
Under Section 27 you may file where you reside, where the respondent resides, or where the incident occurred. A woman who has moved to her parents' town can file there.
Can my in-laws be made respondents?
Yes, if they shared the household. The Act is not aimed only at husbands.
My husband refuses to give talaq or agree to khula. Does that stop me?
No. Section 2 of the 1939 Act gives the wife a statutory right to a decree of dissolution on grounds like cruelty, failure to maintain for two years, or his whereabouts being unknown for four years. His consent is not required. On khula specifically, the law is not uniform across High Courts on whether a decree can follow a husband's refusal, which is why the Section 2 petition is usually the cleaner route.
What if there is no recent incident and no medical record?
Cruelty under Section 2(viii) of the 1939 Act is not limited to physical assault. Conduct that makes life miserable, attempts to force her into an immoral life, or obstructing her religious practice all fall within it. But proof gets harder with time and no record. If the only evidence is your own word against his, the honest advice may be that the dissolution route is stronger than the criminal one, and that a settlement is worth considering.
What if the two families want to settle it?
A private settlement does not automatically end a Section 12 application. The Magistrate decides whether to record it and close the matter, and relief already granted can continue until that happens. Never sign a settlement that asks you to withdraw a pending application before you have read what you are withdrawing from.
If any part of this matches your situation, the useful first step is not a long call. Send a short note to the chamber through /contact-us with the order or complaint copy you have, its date, and two lines on what happened. If there is no document yet, send the date of the incident, the police station you approached, and whether anything was registered. That is enough for someone to tell you whether there is a Section 12 application to file, a Section 2 petition, or — on those facts — nothing worth arguing, which is also an answer worth getting early.
This is general information about Indian law, current as of the law in force, and is not legal advice on your own situation. Please have your documents read by an advocate before acting on anything here.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India