Make Domestic Violence Act gender neutral

2
170

NEW DELHI – About 100 people staged a protest against the Domestic Violence Act in the capital Sunday saying it was “full of loopholes” and needed to be made “gender neutral”.

Activists of Save the Family Foundation, who organised the protest, said that service providers must ensure that the law is made more gender neutral to avoid its misuse.

Niladri Shekhar Das, secretary of the NGO, said: “The Domestic Violence Act is full of loopholes, because of which it is being increasingly misused by a lot of women. Efforts must be made that the law is just and gender neutral so that no one can take advantage of it”.

“The Act assumes that women are always the victims. Hence they are not required to provide any proof for their claims. The sole testimony of the so-called aggrieved person is enough for the court to conclude that an offence has been committed. This is a baseless assumption that helps people misuse the law,” Das told IANS.

Submitting a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil on ammending the law, the NGO further said that an decision on the custody of the child should be made by a court based on fair hearing of both parents.

“Unless there is compelling evidence to believe that either one or both parents are harmful to the child’s physical and emotional health and well-being, joint custody should be granted to the mother and the father. Also, if it’s realised that a person has filed a false case under the Domestic Violence Act, they should be punished in order to discourage others from following suit,” Das added.

2 COMMENTS

  1. What is happening to DV??????????

    A 70-year-old woman filed a complaint against her 75-year-old husband saying he’s not letting her install an air-conditioner. The woman asked the court to restrain him from entering their house under the domestic violence Act. A woman who deserted her husband in Kolkata and returned to Mumbai alleges his filing a divorce petition is an act of domestic violence. A 30-year-old woman got divorced and remarried, but has appealed that her ex-husband be restrained from entering the house they used to share. It’s in his name. Mumbai: It was put into place to empower women, and that’s what the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, does. Largely. But many women are misusing the Act, say city lawyers. In all three cases mentioned above, the magistrates passed interim order in favour of the women without hearing the other side. Lawyers who have been dealing with domestic issues feel that such frivolous complaints are on the rise. “In 2006, there were very few cases under the DV Act. Now every magistrate has 8-10 complaints,” said an advocate, requesting anonymity. The concern is that the misuse of the law will eventually affect the genuine cases.

    Advocate Shekhar Jagtap said magistrates should be cautious. “Before passing an order, the magistrate should step into the complainant’s shoe. This will help in deciding the genuineness of the complaint.”

  2. Sigh … Why is always about making the rules, these rules there are always loopholes for something that can be pushed around people who are not responsible. Should, before the regulation was enacted, these regulations have to be socialized first. This socialization should be done while still in the form of draft legislation, not been passed into law. If after that, then there is socialization, and discussed with the experts, what for?

Leave a Reply to manoj Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *