Female relatives can be booked for domestic violence: HC

“No doubt,when we talk of domestic violence against women,it may include all women in legal relationship. When the legal provisions are read conjointly keeping the scheme of the DV Act,it becomes abundantly clear that the legislator intended female relatives also to be respondents in the proceedings initiated by wife or female living in relationship in the nature of marriage,” said a Division Bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ajit Bharihoke.

The court was adjudicating a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Varsha Kapoor,who was booked under the Act for allegedly torturing her estranged daughter-in-law. Kapoor claimed in her petition the legal provision had clearly indicated that only male members could be prosecuted under the law.

Asked to respond,the Union government had told the court that the prime purpose of the Act was to protect women from domestic violence and that rights of the victim could not be guided by the gender of the perpetrator.

“If a restricted interpretation is given,the very purpose for which the Act was enacted would be defeated. It would be very easy for the husband or other male relatives to frustrate the remedy by ensuring that the violence on the wife is perpetrated by female members,” the Bench noted.

Also accepting that the concerned provision in the Act was not “satisfactorily worded” and that it was afflicted with “ambiguity,” the Bench said in such a situation,it is the court’s duty to give correct interpretation.

The High Court’s ruling sets the precedent for the city’s trial courts,which so far had been passing orders on the basis of their respective judgments and interpretational skills.

Act must be gender-neutral: Men’s organisations
Even as the Delhi High Court ruled that women can also be prosecuted under the Domestic Violence Act,several organisations working against the “misuse” of the legislation said they would like the law to be “gender-neutral” considering a man can also be tortured by his wife.

“The law should be gender-neutral and must not be guided by the sex of the perpetrator of violence. The High Court is also saying the same thing in its judgment,though with a different perspective. The courts must appreciate that abused men also deserve protection under the laws,” Dr Arun Kumar,a member of the Save Indian Family Foundation told Newsline.

Vihan Khera,spokesperson of My Nation Foundation,an NGO working towards bringing equality for men,also concurred.

“The archaic concept that only women can be harassed should give way to the real situation where men also suffer. The Act should either be amended or replaced by a more benign,sensible,gender-neutral legislation that ensures women and men their rightful,honorable place in and outside the home,” he said.

The judiciary’s stand on the issue,however,has been that protection in the form of a law was not warranted for men in the Indian scenario.

The High Court in a 2008 verdict had said: “We do not rule out the possibility of a man becoming the victim of domestic violence but such cases would be few and far between,thus not requiring or justifying the protection of Parliament.”