Domestic Violence Act vis a vis constitutional rights

Tarun Vohra (Querist) 19 May 2011 This query is : Resolved
Acts such as the Domestic violence Act were brought in to prevent exploitation/harassment of wives largely from dowry related violence. The aim was to protect women largely from lower/lower middle class households.

I'm not sure to what extent this has succeeded, but it has given rise to a rather disturbing trend in the middle/uppermiddle class of our society.

Women/wives ( especially in the metro cities) now have husbands at their complete mercy and are blatantlly misusing these rights to intimidate their spouses. They are flooding the courts with ficticious and trumped up charges to extort large amounts of money from their husbands .

This is not an exageration. I've spoken to a number of lawyers ( both men and women) and they almost uanimously confirm the same.

Amazingly, this Act contravenes the inherant principle which says that a person is innocent until proven guilty. This Law unfortunately works on the exact reverse- the husband is assumed to be guilty until proved innocent!! It gives the wife rights over the husband's entire family and they can even be imprisoned without charges being proven against them.

Also, this seems to be aimed at only at women in a particular age group ( of marriageable age). Mothers /ladies who are senior citizens are at the complete mercy of the wives whom these laws are supposed to protect !

I also think this violates constitutional rights under Sec 14 and 21.

I'd be grateful for your opinion and would also like to file a PIL in the Supreme Court challenging the legitimacy of this draconian law.

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abhishek (Expert) 19 May 2011
the present act u are discussing is a beneficial legislation the purpose of which is to provide remedies in cases of domestic violence
somehow it is correct that the women specially in urban areas making misuse of this act but still it has benefit for the women actually in need

M.Sheik Mohammed Ali (Expert) 19 May 2011
yes, i do agree experts abhishek

Guest (Expert) 19 May 2011
i am of different opinion in this, a person is not hold guilty in the initial stage and for this wife is given the prestige that she is not able to earn and she is entitled for the monthly allowance. in this case husband is not hod guilty at this stage and after the evidence he is held guilty if the offence of domestic violence is proved.

Guest (Expert) 20 May 2011
Every law is tried to be misused by some one or the other with the help of shrewed advocates.

In fact every law need to provide some restrictive provisions like stringent punishment on misuse of the provisions of the concerned law. Unless that aspect is taken care of at the very initial stage of drafting, the law is sure to be taken advantage by misuse by some one or the other.

M V Gupta (Expert) 21 May 2011
The DV Act needs to be amneded so as to provide for stringent punishment for misuse of the provisions. I think this should prevent the malady of misuse of the law which is otherwise a good piece of legislation.

Santosh Goswami,Advocate (Expert) 21 May 2011
i completely agreed with the view and add that a PIL has all the possibility to succeed.

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