The Bombay High Court has ruled that cases of domestic violence committed in the United States can be heard by a magistrate in Mumbai, The Times of India reported on Monday. The court said the cases are not time-bound as it dismissed a plea filed by an information technology professional based in the US.

The man, identified as Mohammad Zuber Farooqi, filed a petition to challenge the Mulund metropolitan magistrate’s order to pay interim maintenance to his wife and son.

In 2008, the couple got married and shifted to US. However, two years later the petitioner filed for a divorce in the Superior Court of California and sought custody of the child. The wife filed a domestic violence complaint against Farooqi in India.

The Mulund court directed the petitioner to pay interim maintenance of Rs 30,000 to his wife, and Rs 15,000 to his son. The husband challenged the order in both sessions court and the Bombay High Court.

Farooqi’s lawyer Prashant Pandey argued that there was two years’ delay in filing the complaint, and on this ground alone, the court should dismiss the complaint. He added that the magistrate court had no jurisdiction to entertain the case as the alleged domestic violence did not take place in India.

Justice Sambhaji Shinde dismissed the petition and granted Farooqi four weeks’ time to comply with the order and pay the compensation.

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