Domestic Violence and Its Misuses

It is an accepted fact in the present world that domestic violence in any household, relationships and marriage should be construed as violation of human rights. In India, one such piece of legislation came to be enacted with effect from 26th December 2006 under the heading “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005″. No doubt, there are various offences covered under the provisions of IPC; to name one of them is the most common 498-A of the IPC, which provides for punishment of the accused who has done violence against women, whether the same has resulted in death of the victim or not, mere violence is punishable. Such laws came into existence with an intention to protect women victims at large from persons who have subjected them to violence. Domestic violence includes actual abuse or threat that is physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional.Domestic violence in general includes harms or injuries, which may injure health, safety, life of the aggrieved person with an intention to force her to meet any unlawful demand by the accused including dowry, etc. Under this act, the magistrate orders protection of such women by ordering for maintenance, etc. The magistrate is also empowered to pass ‘protection orders’ in favour of the complainant so as to protect him/her from being further abused. Non-governmental organizations help in aiding the aggrieved with medical help, legal aid, safe shelter, etc.

The present act most of the time is used to harass the husband or any other member claiming under him. According to many legal experts, this act although has some honest intentions of protecting the victim, it has caused more harm than good due to its misuse, misapplication and misinterpretation. When a person is accused under the provisions of the act, no matter what may be the outcome of the prosecution, the social stigma remains.

 Thus again, the accused is tormented by the society even if the accusation is proven wrong. At times women falsely accuse their husbands and in-laws so as to gain substantial wealth by means of compensations. Such misapplication and misuse of the law is one of the main causes for the destruction of many families. The act may need revision in order to prevent such misuse and misapplication of the act. The true intention of this act was to protect domestic violence victims from further pain and to thus relieve them from their misery.

Thus, only genuine victims of domestic violence must be identified and given assistance; and such greedy complainants must be stopped from ruining families.