Gender based deviance at home and in trafficking: domestic violence, cruelty, dowry and protective homes

1. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

• Aggrieved person (section 2(a)): a woman who is or has been in a domestic relationship with the respondent and alleges domestic violence.
• Domestic relationship (section 2(f)): persons living together in a shared household, related by consanguinity, marriage, a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption or as members of a joint family.
• Respondent (section 2(q)): originally “any adult male person”. In Hiral P. Harsora v. Kusum Narottamdas Harsora, 2016 INSC 955, (2016) 10 SCC 165, the words “adult male” were struck down as violating Article 14, so women and minors who commit domestic violence may also be respondents.
• Domestic violence (section 3): physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse (insults, ridicule, name-calling, threats), and economic abuse (deprivation of resources, disposal of assets, denial of access to the shared household), and harassment for dowry.
• Shared household (section 2(s)): in Satish Chander Ahuja v. Sneha Ahuja, 2020 INSC 599, (2021) 1 SCC 414, the Court held that it includes a household where the woman lived in a domestic relationship, even if it belongs to her in-laws and the husband has no share in it.
• Machinery: Protection Officers appointed by the State (section 8), registered service providers (section 10), and the duty of police officers and magistrates to inform the woman of her rights (section 5).
• Application (section 12) to the Magistrate by the aggrieved person, a Protection Officer or anyone on her behalf.
• Reliefs: protection orders (section 18) restraining violence, contact and entering her workplace; residence orders (section 19); monetary relief (section 20); custody orders (section 21); compensation (section 22); interim and ex parte orders (section 23). The right to reside in the shared household is in section 17.
• Breach of a protection order (section 31) is an offence: imprisonment up to one year, or fine up to twenty thousand rupees, or both.

The Act is mainly civil. Criminal liability comes from the BNS: cruelty by husband or relatives, section 85 (old IPC 498A), up to three years and fine, with “cruelty” defined in section 86 as wilful conduct likely to drive the woman to suicide or cause grave injury to life, limb or health, or harassment to coerce her or her relatives to meet unlawful demands; dowry death, section 80 (old 304B); and abetment of suicide, section 108 (old 306). Giving, taking and demanding dowry are offences under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. The Supreme Court has cautioned against mechanical arrest in cruelty cases (Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, 2014).

2. Problem (January 2026)

A woman who is the wife of a minister is harassed by her husband physically and verbally. She wants to take legal action against him. State the law.

Issue. Whether the husband's status protects him, and what remedies she has.

Law and application. She is an aggrieved person in a domestic relationship (marriage) with the respondent, and physical and verbal abuse are domestic violence under section 3. She may apply to the Magistrate under section 12, directly or through a Protection Officer, for a protection order (section 18), a residence order (section 19) and monetary relief and compensation (sections 20 and 22), and seek an ex parte interim order (section 23) if she is in danger. If the harassment is wilful conduct likely to cause grave injury to her health, it is cruelty under section 85 BNS, and she may lodge an FIR. The husband's office gives him no immunity: a minister has no privilege against ordinary criminal or civil process for private conduct, and the case illustrates the privileged class problem only in that his influence may deter the police. If the police fail to act, she may approach the Superintendent of Police or the Magistrate, and the Protection Officer is bound to assist her.

Conclusion. She can proceed under the Domestic Violence Act for civil reliefs and under section 85 BNS for prosecution; both remedies may be pursued together.

3. Trafficking and the protective home

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (originally the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act) does not make prostitution itself an offence; it punishes keeping a brothel, living on the earnings of prostitution, procuring and detaining persons for prostitution, and prostitution in or near public places. Trafficking of persons is also an offence under section 143 of the BNS (old IPC 370).

• Protective home (section 2(g)): an institution established or licensed under section 21 in which persons in need of care and protection may be kept, with technically qualified staff and facilities; it does not include a shelter for undertrials or a corrective institution.
• Establishment and licensing (section 21): the State Government may establish protective homes and corrective institutions; no other person may run one without a licence.
• Intermediate custody (section 17): a person rescued is produced before the magistrate; pending inquiry, safe custody for not more than ten days, and never with a person likely to exercise a harmful influence. After inquiry, if the person needs care and protection, the magistrate may order detention in a protective home for one to three years (section 17(4)).
• Voluntary application (section 19): a person carrying on or made to carry on prostitution may apply to the magistrate to be kept in a protective home or to be given care and protection.
• Corrective institution (section 10A): a female offender convicted of soliciting or of prostitution near public places may be detained in a corrective institution for two to five years instead of being imprisoned.

Criticism: protective homes have often been overcrowded and run like jails, with detention against the woman's will; rehabilitation and vocational training have been weak. The emphasis of later case law and policy has been on rehabilitation with consent.

How this is examined

June 2025 and February 2025: a note on domestic violence. June 2025: a note on the protective home under the ITPA. January 2026: the minister's wife problem. For the domestic violence note, give the definition in section 3 with its four kinds of abuse, the reliefs, the Protection Officer, section 31, and one case (Hiral Harsora or Satish Chander Ahuja). For the protective home note, sections 2(g), 17, 19, 21 and 10A.