Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Not just daughters-in-law, Maneka Gandhi says Domestic Violence Act must protect mothers-in-law too

Not just daughters-in-law, Maneka Gandhi says Domestic Violence Act must protect mothers-in-law too

Abantika Ghosh | New Delhi | Published: Jul 23 2014, 08:59 IST

SUMMARY
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi wants the Domestic Violence Act amended to allow women to seek protection from their daughters-in-law also

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi wants the Domestic Violence Act amended to allow women to seek protection from their daughters-in-law also.

The present law only provides for protecting women from domestic violence by any man with whom they live or have lived in a “shared household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage, or through a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption, or are family members living together as a joint family”. It does not allow women to be charged under the law.

According to sources, Maneka has asked officials to work on incorporating a provision under which women who face violence by their sons and daughters-in-law can also approach the protection officers.

“Many cases have been brought to the notice of the minister where elderly women have been misbehaved with or even tortured by their sons and daughters-in-law for property or other reasons. Even when the case is genuine, no action can be taken against the daughters-in-law under the law. The minister feels that the law should protect all women, regardless of their relationship with the oppressor. We are exploring legal options and will move an amendment soon,” said a source close to Maneka.

However, legal experts said allowing women to be charged under the law may defeat its very purpose, as a slew of counter-cases may be filed in response to genuine complaints. While the present law allows an oppressed woman to move against her son, the daughter-in-law has “immunity”. Challenging this “immunity” may threaten the very edifice of not just the Domestic Violence Act but also the Dowry Act, said experts.

“The decision to keep women out of the purview of the definition of respondents in the law was deliberate and calculated. If changes are made that allow a mother-in-law to move against a daughter-in-law, it would mean that the moment a woman files a domestic violence or a dowry case against her in-laws, her husband would get his mother to file a counter case against her under the Domestic Violence Act. That will open the floodgates for misuse of the law,” said a lawyer associated with Lawyers’ Collective.

Source-http://www.financialexpress.com/news/not-just-daughtersinlaw-maneka-gandhi-says-domestic-violence-act-must-protect-mothersinlaw-too/1272723

In-laws have right to house despite son-wife discord: HC

In-laws have right to house despite son-wife discord: HC
Written by Express News Service | New Delhi | April 27, 2012 2:17 am

SUMMARY
Concerned about the harassment of a couple who were dragged into a marital dispute between their son and daughter-in-law,the Delhi High Court has said that trial courts must balance legal rights to ensure that the man’s parents can live in peace in their house.

Concerned about the harassment of a couple who were dragged into a marital dispute between their son and daughter-in-law,the Delhi High Court has said that trial courts must balance legal rights to ensure that the man’s parents can live in peace in their house.
Referring to the right of a woman to reside in her matrimonial house,Justice Kailash Gambhir said that although this right was brought on the statute book to protect the woman from being left in the lurch at the hands of her in-laws,it was a reality that the man’s old parents were often made to pay the price for the discord between the couple.
“One cannot or may I say should not shy away from the hard-hitting reality that it is not always the daughter-in-law who is berated,but at times the in-laws who are at the receiving end of the daughter in law’s cantankerousness,” said the court,while granting a decree of possession of a house in South Extension Part-II to a 61-year-old woman.
The court allowed her plea that her daughter-in-law could not claim her right to have possession of a room in the house as it belonged neither to her son nor her husband and the same was given to her (the complainant) by her mother as a wedding gift.
While passing the order in her favour,Justice Gambhir said: “It should not be for a moment consigned to oblivion that the parents-in-law have every right to live in peace in their own property and the right to property vested in them cannot be snatched away and used as a tool to harass them.”
Also expressing displeasure over the growing number of matrimonial cases filed by women against their parents-in-law,the court noted that such laws were being misused frequently.
“This court would like to observe that with a view to mitigating the oppression and inequality suffered by the fairer sex in this country from times immemorial,various woman-friendly laws have been enacted so as to empower the women. It is a bitter truth that where on one hand these progressive laws have led to amelioration and advancement of the cause of the woman in this country,at the same time on the other hand these liberalised statutes have been flagrantly misused,” added Justice Gambhir.