The Law On Expert Psychiatric Evidence Of Special Characteristics For Battered Women: Case Comment - Regina Versus Ahluwalia [1992] 4 All ER 889
- IJLLR Journal
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Srishti Sarraf, Advocate (D/10778/2024), Bar Council of Delhi, India LL.M. (Public Law), National Law University, Delhi (2024-25) B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), Chanakya National Law University, Patna (2019-24)
1. INTRODUCTION
Why is womanhood a metaphor for guilt and obligations?
This statement encapsulates the essence of the present case. For ten long years, the accused- Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a woman of Indian origin, trapped in an abusive marriage, endured unbearable pain and suffering both- mental and physical at the hands of his husband. From breaking her tooth to giving her swollen lips and from pushing her hard to cause fractured hands to point a knife at her, her husband never hesitated gifting her pain through every means and in every form, possible. Bruises could be seen on hand, check, face, wrists and almost every other part of her body demonstrating that violence, abuse, physical assault, sexual assault, threats of death and abandonment were part and parcel of her everyday life. Given that the accused was well-read and employed, in some parallel alternative modern world she would have chosen to walk out but despite all of the miseries, Kiranjit, who was once inclined to be a lawyer, then became a wife and a mother of two kids was attempting badly to "mend" her relations with her husband. Her wish to hold on to the marriage that was serving no good to her was motivated “partly because of her sense of duty as a wife and partly for the sake of the children.” But when survival is in question, it becomes difficult to hold onto the hegemonic patriarchal beliefs thus soon coming to the point wherein Kiranjit has to react to the situation. When she reacted the years of suffering prompted her to cause pain to her husband in a way that in turn made her the killer of her perpetual preparator- her husband.
