The short answer is no, not by simply putting your belongings outside the door. The law gives a specific and enforceable protection here.
The right to residence
Section 17 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 provides that every woman in a domestic relationship has the right to reside in the shared household, whether or not she has any right, title or beneficial interest in it. She shall not be evicted or excluded from it save in accordance with the procedure established by law.
Section 19 then sets out what the Magistrate can actually order, and it is worth asking for the limbs by name rather than asking generally for a residence order. The Magistrate may restrain the respondent from dispossessing you or otherwise disturbing your possession of the shared household, whether or not he has any legal or equitable interest in it; direct the respondent to remove himself from the shared household; restrain the respondent or his relatives from entering the portion in which you reside; restrain him from alienating, disposing of or encumbering the household; restrain him from renouncing his rights in it except with the leave of the Magistrate; or direct him to secure alternative accommodation of the same level, or to pay rent for it. The scope of each of those, and how courts have applied them, is set out in the guide on a wife's right to residence in the matrimonial home.
What counts as a shared household
This was long disputed. In Satish Chander Ahuja v. Sneha Ahuja (2020) the Supreme Court held that a shared household can include a house belonging to a relative of the husband, such as the father-in-law, where the woman has lived in a domestic relationship, and it overruled the narrower earlier view in S.R. Batra v. Taruna Batra. So a property in the in-laws' name is not automatically outside the Act.
This is the crucial distinction. The residence right protects occupation; it does not transfer any share in the property. The owner can still pursue a civil suit asserting title, and courts will decide the residence claim and the ownership claim on their own footings, often directing alternative accommodation of the same standard or rent instead of continued occupation.
The counter-move to watch for
In-laws increasingly answer a residence claim by applying to a Maintenance Tribunal under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 for an order evicting the daughter-in-law from what they say is their property. In S. Vanitha v. Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban District (2020) the Supreme Court held that the Senior Citizens Act cannot be deployed in a way that defeats a woman's right of residence in a shared household under the Domestic Violence Act, and directed that the two statutes be harmonised rather than one used to override the other. The Domestic Violence Act itself points the same way: Section 36 provides that its provisions are in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law. It is a Bengaluru matter, and it is the answer to produce when an eviction order from a Tribunal arrives.
What to do if you are being pushed out
- File an application before the Magistrate under the PWDVA seeking a residence order under Section 19, and an interim or ex parte order if the threat is immediate.
- Ask specifically for restraint on dispossession, on alienating or disposing of the household, and on renouncing rights in it.
- Call the police and record the incident. A written complaint creates the contemporaneous record that decides these cases.
- Photograph the household and your belongings, and preserve any messages threatening eviction.
Mechanically it is an application under Section 12 of the Act, and Section 27 allows it to be filed before the Judicial Magistrate of the first class within whose local limits you reside, permanently or temporarily, or the respondent resides or works, or the cause of action arose; an order made under the Act is enforceable throughout India. Section 23 lets the Magistrate pass interim orders and, where the affidavit prima facie discloses that domestic violence has been committed or is likely, an ex parte order, which is what makes the Act useful the same week rather than the same year. Breach of a protection order is an offence under Section 31, punishable with imprisonment up to one year, or fine up to twenty thousand rupees, or both, and it is ordinarily tried by the same Magistrate who passed the order. The full application process, including the interim stage, is set out in the guide on how to get a protection order under the DV Act.
You are not expected to do this alone or to pay for it. A Protection Officer can record the Domestic Incident Report, assist with the application and ensure that legal aid is arranged, and in Karnataka the Protection Officers are the Women and Child Development Deputy Directors at district level and the Child Development Project Officers at taluk level. Legal aid is available through the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, and women are entitled to it regardless of income. There is no substantial court fee on an application under the Act, so the barrier here is information rather than money.
If you have already been put out
The Magistrate can order that you be restored to possession of the shared household. Move quickly, because the longer the exclusion continues, the more likely the court is to lean toward ordering alternative accommodation instead.