Domestic violence ruling: Govt to file review plea

After the furore over the Supreme Courts recent observation that kicking or threatening women by in-laws cannot be construed as cruelty under Section 498 A of the IPC,the government has agreed to file a review petition. The decision comes following a meeting of Law Minister Veerappa Moily with National Commission of Women chairperson Dr Girija Vyas. I have written to the Law Minister and also met him today. He has agreed to study the judgment and file a review petition soon, Vyas said. Backing the NCW stand,Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath said: The law should be in favour of women. Strict action should be taken against husband or in-laws,whosoever is responsible for violence, she said.

Calling it an insensitive reading of the law,CPM Politburo member Brinda Karat had asked the Centre to file a review petition challenging the judgment. She has also asked Moily to urgently study the judgment. She said such a judicial understanding of cruelty would become a licence for domestic violence.

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The SC has ruled that a husband cannot be prosecuted under Section 498A of the IPC because his mother or family members kicked her or threatened her with divorce.

The ruling came on a pile appeal filed by an NRI and his family in a matrimonial dispute case in India.