new delhi the supreme court on thursday exponentially expanded the ambit of shared household under dv act and ruled that a woman belonging to every religion be she a mother daughters sisters wife motherinlaw daughterinlaw or such other categories of women in a domestic relationship have the right to reside in a shared householdin a 79page judgment analysing the shared household provision under protection of women from domestic violence act dv act a bench of justices m r shah and b v nagarathna said a woman in a domestic relationship who is not aggrieved in the sense that who has not been subjected to an act of domestic violence has a right to reside in a shared household thus a mother daughter sister wife motherinlaw and daughterinlaw or such other categories of women in a domestic relationship have the right to reside in a shared household dehors a right title or beneficial interest in the samewriting the judgment justice nagarathna said right of residence of the aforesaid categories of women and such other categories of women in a domestic relationship is guaranteed under subsection 1 of section 17 and she cannot be evicted excluded or thrown out from such a household even in the absence of there being any form of domestic violencethe bench said in the indian societal context the right of a woman to reside in the shared household is of unique importance the reasons for the same are not far to see in india most women are not educated nor are they earning neither do they have financial independence so as to live singlyshe may be dependent for residence in a domestic relationship not only for emotional support but for the aforesaid reasons a majority of women in india do not have independent income or financial capacity and are totally dependent vis vis their residence on their male or other female relations who may have a domestic relationship with her justice nagarathna saidgiving a secular character to the dv act and making it applicable to women irrespective of the faith professed by them as in the case of ipc crpc and cpc the sc said dv act is a piece of civil code which is applicable to every woman in india irrespective of her religious affiliation andor social background for a more effective protection of her rights guaranteed under the constitution and in order to protect women victims of domestic violence occurring in a domestic relationship justices shah and nagarathna said the expression the right to reside in a shared household cannot be restricted to actual residence in other words even in the absence of actual residence in the shared household a woman in a domestic relationship can enforce her right to reside therein they saidproviding illustrations to drive home the point the bench said if a woman gets married then she acquires the right to reside in the household of her husband which then becomes a shared household within the meaning of the dv act in india