SEXUAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS A legal and ... - The ICHRP

aggrieved person in a destitute position. 358 The law also punishes any person who prints or
publishes any information that reveals the identity of the aggrieved person or respondent. 359
The law also permits the court to pass further directions in the best interests of the aggrieved
person, including providing a shelter or temporary accommodation, counselling services to
parties involved in the case, and appointing a social worker, family counsellor, or probation
officer to monitor observance of the court order. 360 This legislation imposes criminal liability
(imprisonment up to 1 year) on the perpetrator in the event that a Protection Order has been
violated by him or her. 361
India’s domestic violence law, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 is
a civil law. 362 The law defines “domestic violence” as any act, omission, commission or
conduct which harms, injures or endangers the health, safety or well-being, whether mental or
physical, of an aggrieved person, including physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic
abuse; which harasses, harms, injures or endangers an aggrieved person with the intention to
coerce her or her relative to meet an unlawful demand for dowry or other property or
security; or which threatens the aggrieved person or her relative by any conduct described
above. 363 The meanings of physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse are also
defined in the Act. 364 “Sexual abuse” includes any conduct of “a sexual nature that abuses,
humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity” of a woman. 365 An “aggrieved person”
is defined as a woman who has been in a domestic relationship with the respondent and who
alleges to have been subject to domestic violence by the respondent 366 , therefore making this
legislation gender-specific, unlike its counterparts in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
A “respondent” is considered to be any adult male person who has been in a domestic
relationship with the aggrieved person and against whom the aggrieved person has sought
relief under the Act and includes a relative of the adult male. 367 A “domestic relationship” is
one between two persons who live or have lived together at any point of time in a shared
household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage or in a relationship like
marriage, adoption or are family members living together as a joint family. 368 A “shared
household” is one in which the aggrieved person has lived with the respondent in a domestic
relationship and includes a household whether owned or tenanted by either or both of them
wherein either of them have any right, title or interest. This includes a household belonging to
respondent’s joint family, irrespective of whether the respondent or aggrieved person has any
right, title or interest. 369 The law recognizes a woman’s right to reside in the shared household
and provides for injunctive relief (such as protection orders, residence orders, maintenance
and compensation orders and temporary custody orders) for women facing domestic violence
in a domestic relationship.
358 Sections 5 & 11, ibid.
359 Section 20, ibid,
360 Section 12, ibid.
361 Section 18, ibid.
362 Domestic violence against married women is also a punishable offence under Section 498A of the Indian
Penal Code.
363 Section 3, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (India)
364 ibid.
365 ibid.
366 Section 2(a), ibid.
367 Section 2(q), ibid.
368 Section 2(f), ibid.
369 Section 2(s), ibid.
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