Delhi's Magistrate courts pass monetary relief orders under the DV Act every working day — for rent, medical expenses, maintenance, loss of earnings. A significant fraction are simply not complied with. The Act anticipated this, and it arms the Magistrate with enforcement mechanisms that are less known than the reliefs themselves: reporting obligations, direct recovery from employers and debtors, and the borrowed machinery of the maintenance law. Knowing the sequence turns a paper order into payment.
The order is the beginning, not the end
Section 20(1) of the DV Act lets the Magistrate direct the respondent to pay monetary relief to meet the expenses incurred and losses suffered by the aggrieved person and any child as a result of domestic violence. Section 20(2) fixes the standard — adequate, fair and reasonable, consistent with the accustomed standard of living. Section 20(3) permits a lump sum or monthly payments. The under-used provisions come after: sub-sections (4) to (6), which are entirely about enforcement.
Step 1 — Service of the order
Under Section 20(4), the Magistrate sends a copy of the monetary relief order to the parties and to the officer in charge of the police station within whose local limits the respondent resides — putting the local police formally on notice.
Step 2 — Payment obligation
Section 20(5) obliges the respondent to pay within the period specified in the order. Diarise the date; default from that date is what all coercive steps hang on.
Step 3 — Employer / debtor direction
On failure to pay, Section 20(6) lets the Magistrate direct the respondent's employer, or any person who owes the respondent money, to pay the aggrieved person directly or deposit a portion of wages or the debt in court.
Step 4 — Recovery of arrears
Because proceedings are governed by the maintenance procedure of the criminal procedure code (Section 28 read with the 2006 Rules), arrears are recovered like unpaid maintenance — warrant of recovery, attachment, and civil detention on wilful default.
Choosing the right coercive tool
| Situation | Effective response |
|---|---|
| Salaried respondent, identifiable employer | Application under Section 20(6) for direct deduction — precise, verifiable, monthly. |
| Self-employed respondent, receivables known | Section 20(6) direction to debtors; supplement with disclosure of accounts through the court. |
| Accumulating arrears, evasive respondent | Recovery application invoking the maintenance machinery — levy as fine, attachment, civil imprisonment on proof of means and wilful default. |
| Breach of protective directions alongside non-payment | Complaint under Section 31 for the breach of the protection order, prosecuted with the recovery steps, not instead of them. |
Interim orders are equally enforceable
Most monetary relief in Delhi is first granted at the interim stage under Section 23. An interim order is not a lesser order: it is enforceable through the same machinery, and default invites the same consequences. Respondents who treat interim maintenance as optional pending the final hearing accumulate arrears that courts recover with interest in practice, and persistent default is a factor courts weigh against the defaulter throughout the proceedings — including on discretionary matters like adjournments and modification applications under Section 25.
Enforcement file checklist for the aggrieved person's counsel:
- Certified copy of the order and proof of its service under Section 20(4).
- A dated ledger of amounts due, paid and outstanding — updated for every hearing.
- Details of the respondent's employer, bank accounts and receivables for a Section 20(6) direction.
- Evidence of means — income affidavit contradictions, lifestyle material — to establish wilful default.
- A recovery application filed promptly; delay in seeking recovery of old arrears invites limitation-style objections borrowed from maintenance practice.
Respondent-side note: A respondent facing an unaffordable order is not without remedy — Section 25(2) permits alteration, modification or revocation of any order on a change in circumstances, and Section 29 provides an appeal to the Court of Session within thirty days. What the scheme does not tolerate is silent default: the enforcement provisions are designed to make ignoring the order the most expensive option available.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does monetary relief under Section 20 cover?
Expenses incurred and losses suffered as a result of domestic violence: loss of earnings, medical expenses, loss caused by destruction or removal of property, and maintenance for the aggrieved person and her children, including or in addition to an order under Section 125 CrPC (now Section 144 BNSS). The relief must be adequate, fair, reasonable and consistent with the standard of living the aggrieved person is accustomed to.
Can the Magistrate make the respondent's employer pay directly?
Yes. Section 20(6) empowers the Magistrate, on failure of the respondent to make payment, to direct the respondent's employer or a debtor of the respondent to pay the aggrieved person directly, or to deposit with the court a portion of the wages, salaries or debt due to the respondent. This is often the fastest coercive tool against a salaried respondent.
Is non-payment of monetary relief an offence under Section 31?
Section 31 criminalises breach of a protection order or an interim protection order. Its application to purely monetary defaults is contested and courts have read it with care; the safer enforcement route for money is Section 20(6), the Section 125 CrPC recovery machinery applied via Section 28 and the rules, and warrants for recovery — with Section 31 reserved for breaches of protective directions.
How are arrears recovered?
Through the maintenance-enforcement machinery: an application for recovery of the accumulated arrears, issuance of a warrant for levy as if the amount were a fine, and, on continued default despite means, detention in civil imprisonment for the statutory period. Interim orders are enforceable in the same way as final ones.