India, Sept. 23 -- The Bombay High Court ordered a family to allow a 43-year-old widow from Nagpur to live in her matrimonial house. The court held that stopping a woman from living in her shared household amounts to domestic violence under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act, 2005.

A single judge bench of justice Urmila Joshi Phalke said that a woman's right to live in her matrimonial house, irrespective of whether she has ever resided there or not, can be enforced under section 17 of the DV act which protects her right of residence. "If her right to reside in the shared household is resisted or restrained, she becomes an aggrieved person and she cannot be evicted, if she has already been living in the shared househo...