The Delhi High Court Thursday held that a woman cannot book her in-laws under the Domestic Violence Act if the parents are not living with their son and his wife.

'There can be no domestic relationship of the wife of the son with the parents when the parents are not living with the son, and there can be no domestic relationship of a wife with the parents of her husband when the son, along with the wife, is living abroad,' said Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra.

Justice Dhingra said that in order to constitute a family and domestic relationship, it is necessary that the persons who constitute domestic relationship must be living together in the same house under one roof.

'Once a son grows up and he starts earning, marries, makes his separate home and sires (fathers) children, the burden of his wife cannot be put on to the shoulders of his father or brother', the court said.

Setting aside the lower court order in July 2009, the court also pulled up a family court judge for directing the in-laws, who stay in India, to pay jointly Rs.50,000 towards monthly maintenance to their daughter-in-law Payal Malik.

The court's ruling came on an appeal filed by Harbans Lal Malik, father-in-law, Neelam (mother-in-law) and Varun Malik, brother-in-law, besides Nagesh Malik, the husband, challenging the lower court's order.