Rights On Paper, Silence In Practice: A Critical Study Of Domestic Violence Law In India
- IJLLR Journal
- Sep 15
- 2 min read
Sunil Sudhakar Varnekar, Research Scholar, Alliance, School of Law, Alliance University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Dr. Upankar Chutia, Associate Professor, Department of Law, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
ABSTRACT
Violence against women is perhaps one of the most rampant types of violation of human rights worldwide and India is not an exception. Women remain the victims of violence despite constitutional provisions of equality, dignity, and right to life under Article 14, 15, and 21 of the Indian Constitution in the very place where they are meant to find some shelter; their homes. Understanding that only penal sanctions like Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code would not be sufficient, Parliament passed the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA), which represented a radical change indeed, as domestic violence was considered a civil right as well as a human right. The Act expanded the definition of domestic violence to cover physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence as well as granting residence rights, protection orders, monetary and other remedies in the present.
Nevertheless, almost 20 years after its introduction, the PWDVA has suffered due to major procedural and institutional deficiencies. Protection Officers are undertrained and overworked; shelter homes are few; service providers are few; police responses are still patriarchal; and long delays in the courts weaken the provisions of the law. Doctrinal and judicial critique also shows that although the courts have increasingly broadened the reach of the Act, identifying live-in relationships, invalidating gender-based limitations on respondents, and clarifying residence rights, the transformative possibilities of the law remain undercut by ineffective enforcement mechanisms. This paper is a critical analysis of the procedural flaws of the PWDVA in the Indian legal system and proposes reform based on lessons learned in other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
Keywords: Domestic Violence; Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005; Indian Legal System; Women’s Rights; Gender Justice; Constitutional Law; Enforcement Lacuna; Comparative Jurisprudence; Procedural Law; Access to Justice.
