The
domestic violence act hereinafter referred as dv act which was incorporated in
the year 2005, The main purpose of this act is to prevent woman only woman from
domestic violence, from the bare reading of the definition of the act we can
see that the term “aggrieved person” includes only women, means only the men
can be prosecuted not the woman, In the 21st century we treat women at par
with men and there have been many incidences where a women are involved in
insult, humiliation, verbal and emotional abuse to men. It is not a rare
possibility that women are indulging in domestic violence against men but this
is a reality, our constitution guarantees equality, means men and women must be
equally treated, then why in dv act there are provisions for women only and not
for men, why women are protected and why there is presumption that men is the
only gender which can do cruelty, domestic violence on women, why not
vice-versa.
The dv act has
given an undue advantage to the women and it is the most lethal weapon which
women can use against men to extort, exploit, and threaten men community just
like terrorism. The dv act has provisions like right to residence regardless of
legal right on the property, maintenance. The provision in law makes the law
easily vulnerable to misuse. which is a fact statistics have shown that only 2%
of all the cases have resulted in conviction and 98% of the cases are deemed to
be fake and there is no provision in dv act if a fake case is lodged then there
is no provision for punishment for the women. For the name of protection of
women the prosecution of innocent men is against the rule of law, A women can
misuse the law very easily like for example A
man can be booked under the DV act if she feels that she has been insulted.
Insult is a relative term, which is totally left to her discretion.
Interestingly, if she insults and abuses him verbally or even physically, he
does not have any legal recourse in this law, even the minor differences in
matrimonial ties could invoke the provisions of DV act, moreover the procedure
of law is governed by CRPC that means a man even making a very light insult to
a women is treated like a criminal. if the case is false the reputation of man
and his family is tainted and there are no steps or legal protection available
to men to protect his reputation . In other words this law treats men like
sitting ducks.
For taking easy
divorce and maintenance the DV act is the first weapon used by the women even
if she is not subjected to any such type of domestic violence, even if the
matter is sub-judice the men are obliged to pay maintenance to women, this
means that punishment for men start as soon as false complaint is lodged, which
is against the principles of natural justice where there is presumption of
innocence.
The fact is DV act
has failed to attend the problems faced by women and men on subject of domestic
violence, the law is often misused then to be used. The need of the society is
to make more gender neutral laws which treat men and women equally in the cases
of domestic violence and not to induce fear in the minds of innocent people
like most of the men and give an extortion tool to the other gender. The DV act
is gender biased on the face of it, The DV act needs to be amended with more
gender neutral provisions to prevent its misuse and to achieve gender equality
and fair justice.
“An unjust law is
itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.” Mahatma Gandhi