PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005 AND ITS MISUSE: A CRITICAL STUDY

More than one third of the households are violent. Women belonging to all caste/ category are bearing the pain of domestic violence beyond the effect of their age, economic and job status, educational level and child bearing etc. Alcohol consumption and husband’s economic superiority have also been found positively related to wife beating.Acceptance of domestic violence by women for the reasons shown by the male perpetrators as grounds of violent behaviour and lack of knowledge about their rights and laws have been traced out as the basic obstacles in taking legal action against offenders of domestic violence. The Act is a uniform civil law, applicable to all beyond their religion and community. Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act is a social enactment that creates various legal, social, judicial and administrative mechanisms to provide assistance to the victims of domestic violence. The Act creates a socio-moral responsibility on judicial, law enforcement, medical and social institutions to provide assistance to victims and survivors, informing them of their rights and securing immediate relief. The paper analyses whether the Act is really acting as a sword to fight against the injustice or the women are making an attempt to use it as shield and rendered faulty accusations against the men.