Domestic violence essentially is violent acts that a family or household is guilty of committing or it could be a solo act by a family member or a household against each other. In the ambit of domestic violence, the perpetrators are a child abuser as well as a wife-beater. Any sort of physical injury may be caused to a family member or to a member of a household owing to some form of domestic violence. Domestic violence by definition includes all intended acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic abuse. Anyone regardless of age, gender, the financial or economic background can be victims of domestic violence. The behavior pattern of domestic violence includes attempts of scaring, physically harming, or controlling a partner so on and so forth. Domestic violence isn’t limited to physical violence rather it extends to mental abuse as well.Types of domestic violence Physical Abuse: Physical hostilities are harmful behavioral patterns akin to physical abuse and aggression of all forms.Sexual Abuse: What it refers to is the sexual exploitation by coercing an unwilling partner to get into a sexual relationship. This sort of sexual harassment encompasses both verbal and physical torture including reproductive rights and forced abortions.Emotional Abuse: Any behavioral pattern exploiting someone’s weakness, insecurity or character is essentially emotional abuse happening during the abusive relationship characterized by unabated criticism, name-calling, embarrassing, and teasing.Call 7604047601 for consultation with registered expert domestic violence lawyers on Vidhikarya.

A man and a woman not married, but having a live-in relationship is enough for the woman who is entitled to maintenance under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. But merely living a live-in relationship is not entitled to get maintenance. The woman has to show that though there was no marriage but the relationship was in the nature of marriage. Having sexual relations with a woman frequently is not a live-in relationship. It is a nature of living as a husband and wife without undergoing a marriage. "Relationship in the nature of marriage" must fulfill the following ingredients:- (a) The couple must hold themselves out to society as being akin to spouses. (b) They must be of legal age to marry. (c) They must be otherwise qualified to enter into a legal marriage, including being unmarried. (d) They must have voluntarily cohabited and held themselves out to the world as being akin to spouses for a significant period of time. (e) The parties must have lived together in a 'shared household' as defined in Section 2(s) of the Act - Merely spending weekends together or a one night stand would not make it a 'domestic relationship'. (f) If a man has a 'keep' whom he maintains financially and uses mainly for sexual purpose and/or as a servant it would not, be a relationship in the nature of marriage. A legally wedded wife or divorced wife can claim maintenance from husband under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. A woman who was in a live-in relationship with a man but not legally wedded is not entitled to claim maintenance under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. However, if such a woman proves that she was in a domestic relationship with the man in this nature marriage would be entitled to claim maintenance under Section 20(3) of Protection of Domestic Violence At, 2005. The Supreme Court of India has also confirmed this proposition in the Velusamy Vs Patchaiammal case. This is a progressive judgment and a great boon to the suppressed women. Article by K.P.Satish Kumar M.L. Advocate Madras High Court