Getting a Restraining Order in India: PWDVA Filing and Appeals

To get a restraining order in India, a woman facing abuse from a spouse, partner, or family member files an application before a Judicial Magistrate under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA), and the court can order the other person to stop all contact, stay away from her home and workplace, and pay for the harm caused. If your dispute is not domestic, a civil court can issue an injunction under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and an Executive Magistrate can require a person to execute a bond to keep the peace under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Indian statutes do not use the phrase “restraining order,” but these are the mechanisms that do the same work.¹

Pick the Right Law for Your Situation

Three legal routes exist, and the right one depends on who the other person is and what they are doing.

The PWDVA is the strongest tool when the person you need protection from is or was in a domestic relationship with you: a husband, live-in partner, blood relative, or someone you share or shared a household with through a joint family arrangement. It was designed as a hybrid of civil and criminal law so that one Magistrate can hand down protection, housing, money, and custody directions in a single proceeding.²

If the trouble is not domestic — a neighbour, a business dispute, threatened trespass, or someone trying to alienate contested property — a temporary injunction under Order XXXIX of the Code of Civil Procedure is the civil route. It is gender-neutral and open to any litigant.³

When behaviour threatens public order, an Executive Magistrate can require the person to execute a bond for keeping the peace for up to one year under Section 126 of the BNSS.⁴ This is not a restraining order in the conventional sense, but the bond creates a financial consequence for further misconduct.

The rest of this article walks through the PWDVA route, because it is what most people asking this question actually need. Alternatives are covered at the end.

What a PWDVA Protection Order Can Do

Section 18 lets the Magistrate prohibit the respondent from committing further violence or helping anyone else commit it, entering your workplace, school, or other places you regularly visit, and contacting you in any form, whether in person, by phone, in writing, or electronically. The order can also stop the respondent from operating joint bank accounts, disposing of shared assets or bank lockers, and threatening or harming your dependants, relatives, or anyone helping you. The court can add any further restriction it thinks necessary.²p>

Under Section 19, the Magistrate can pass a residence order preventing the respondent from evicting you or disturbing your possession of the shared household, regardless of who legally owns it. The court can direct the respondent to leave the home, bar them or their relatives from parts of it, or order them to secure equivalent housing for you and pay the rent. One line the court will not cross: it cannot order a woman to vacate the shared household under this section.²

Section 20 covers money. The Magistrate can order the respondent to pay for lost earnings, medical costs, damage to or removal of property, and ongoing maintenance for you and your children. This maintenance can be granted alongside or in addition to any maintenance order already passed under other laws.²

The Act defines “domestic violence” to include physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, and economic abuse. Economic abuse catches conduct many people would not label as violence: controlling access to money, withholding financial resources, or blocking someone from working. Insults, humiliation, and threats qualify even without physical harm. And the Magistrate does not have to find that violence has already happened; the statute covers situations where it “is likely to take place,” so credible threats and escalating patterns are enough.²

Who Can Apply and Which Court to Approach

An application can be filed by the aggrieved woman herself, by a Protection Officer on her behalf, or by any other person acting for her. You do not need a lawyer to file, though having one strengthens the application.¹

The “aggrieved person” is any woman who is or has been in a domestic relationship with the respondent. The respondent is any adult male in that relationship, and you can also name female relatives of the husband or male partner. This covers the common situation where abuse comes from both a husband and his family.²

Every jurisdiction has government-appointed Protection Officers. They can file the application for you, prepare a domestic incident report for the Magistrate, arrange free legal aid under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, connect you to shelter and medical care, and follow up on enforcement of monetary orders.⁵ For women without the money for private counsel, or who do not know where to start, a Protection Officer is usually the fastest way into the system.

The application goes before the Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, or the Metropolitan Magistrate in metropolitan areas, in the jurisdiction where you live, where the respondent lives, or where the violence took place. You can also ask for PWDVA relief inside an existing civil, family court, or criminal proceeding between the same parties, so a separate application is not always needed.¹

Documents to Gather Before You File

Courts decide these applications quickly, so the first filing carries a lot of weight. Try to have the following in hand:

Proof of the domestic relationship: marriage certificate, photographs together, shared utility bills, ration card entries, or any document showing you live or lived in a shared household with the respondent.
A detailed affidavit describing specific incidents with dates, times, and locations. Concrete beats vague.
Supporting evidence: copies of any FIRs, medical reports for injuries, photographs of injuries or property damage, and screenshots of threatening messages or calls.
Names and contact details of anyone who witnessed the abuse or its aftermath.
Your full name and address, and the respondent’s.

You do not need every item to file. Courts regularly grant ex parte orders on the strength of an affidavit alone when the situation is urgent. But each additional piece of evidence helps at the final hearing, when the respondent gets a chance to contest your claims.

How the Case Moves Through Court

The application is filed under Section 12 of the PWDVA. It sets out the facts, specifies the reliefs sought (protection order, residence order, monetary relief, custody, or any combination), and attaches supporting evidence. If a Protection Officer has prepared a domestic incident report, the Magistrate considers that too.¹

If the Magistrate is satisfied from the affidavit that domestic violence has occurred or is likely to occur, the court can grant an ex parte order right away, without hearing the respondent first. That order can cover any of the reliefs under the Act, and the court can also pass interim orders at any stage of the proceedings as it considers just and proper.⁶ This is how urgent protection actually gets delivered.

After the ex parte or interim order, the court issues formal notice to the respondent to appear and defend. Both sides then present evidence and arguments, and the Magistrate decides whether to make the order final, modify it, or discharge it. The statute directs the Magistrate to try to dispose of the application within 60 days of the first hearing.¹ In practice, cases sometimes run longer, but the 60-day mark is the benchmark the court is meant to push toward.

If the Respondent Breaks the Order

Breaching a protection order or an interim protection order is a criminal offence. Report the violation to the police immediately and inform the court that issued the order.

A conviction carries imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to ₹20,000, or both.⁷ The offence is cognizable and non-bailable, which means the police can arrest without a warrant and the respondent has no automatic right to bail.⁸ That makes enforcement much more immediate than in ordinary civil disputes.

Appealing the Order

Either side can appeal the Magistrate’s order to the Court of Session within 30 days from the date the order is served. This applies to final orders as well as interim and ex parte orders.² The 30 days run from service, not from the date the order was passed, which matters when formal service is delayed.

If the PWDVA Does Not Apply to You

The PWDVA protects women in domestic relationships and no one else. Men, and women threatened by someone they have no domestic connection with, need a different route.

A temporary injunction under Order XXXIX of the CPC is available to any litigant in disputes over property, contracts, or threatened injury. You file a suit in civil court and apply for the injunction, which the court can grant at any stage. The petitioner has to show that disputed property is at risk of damage or alienation, that the defendant intends to dispose of assets to defraud creditors, or that the defendant threatens dispossession or other injury. Disobedience is treated as a penal matter and can result in detention.³

If you are being stalked, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 makes stalking a standalone criminal offence, covering repeated following, unwanted contact after clear rejection, and monitoring of online activity. A first conviction can carry up to three years of imprisonment and a fine; a second or later conviction can go up to five years. Filing an FIR triggers a criminal investigation and can support a later application for a protection order or civil injunction.

For threats that spill into public order rather than a private relationship, the peace bond under Section 126 of the BNSS is available through an Executive Magistrate.⁴ It is a narrower tool than a PWDVA order, but it can be the practical choice when nothing else fits.

1
High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
2
India Code. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
3
Manupatra. Code of Civil Procedure – Temporary Injunction, Order XXXIX
4
Indian Kanoon. Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 – Section 126
5
India Code. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 – Section 9
6
Indian Kanoon. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 – Section 23
7
Indian Kanoon. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 – Section 31
8
Press Information Bureau. Ministry of Law and Justice Release – Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005