The Laws in India against Domestic Violence

The prevalence of domestic violence is a scourge and an evil thing in our society. It is about time that we ensure that the issue is addressed squarely and that we are equipped in dealing with it.

In India, domestic violence and dowry deaths complement each other. The vast majority of domestic violence cases result in or lead to dowry deaths and therefore prevalent.

There may be relatives or friends who during their lifetime have had to deal with domestic violence or have been perpetrators. Nonetheless, domestic violence is often ignored or overlooked without taking any action as the victims are clueless as to who they ought to turn to for lodging their grievances.  

The three laws in effect in India that deal with domestic violence issues directly are:

·       The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

·       The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 and

·       Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.

Under The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 which is a civil law womenfolk are protected from the menfolk in the household. This law in addition to protecting married women from their husbands also protects unmarried women who may be living together. This law also protects family members including mothers, grandmothers, and so on.

This law permits women to look for protection against domestic violence, to be compensated financially, to exert the right to shared living in their household, and getting maintenance if in case they live apart.

The law ensures women aren’t thrown out of their homes and can keep their body and soul together even after being mistreated. It provides protection to women from their perpetrators – under the Act, a Magistrate can pass a decree ensuring the perpetrator neither contacts nor is in close proximity to the abused or the affected party.

The Dowry Prohibition Act is a criminal law that punishes both the giver and the taker of dowry. Based on this law, if anyone takes, gives or even so much as demands dowry, then the punishment is imprisonment for 6 months or they could be paying a fine of a maximum of Rs 5,000.

Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code is about husband or husband’s relative who may be a woman’s husband inflicting cruelty on her. Cruelty in this context essentially means any behavior that pushes a woman to the brink of suicide or may cause fatal injury particularly to mental health – including harassment in the pretext of dowry. If indicted, a jail term of 3 years looms large.

Click here to connect to Vidhikarya’s registered expert domestic lawyers for further legal advice in this regard.