Alas, men have no domestic violence law!
-Justice S. Vaidyanathan
Quite recently, Justice S Vaidyanathan, Chief Justice of Madras High Court groused about the lack of legal provisions protecting men under the Domestic Violence Act. This happened in the light of the case where a woman filed a false domestic violence complaint in 2014 at Mahila court, Salem against her husband, just to harass him. Soon, he filed for divorce on the grounds of alleged cruelty and voluntary desertion by his wife and was accepted in the family court. Few days before the divorce, she sent the complaint of domestic violence to his employer. Consequently, the complaint led to the suspension of her husband, Dr. P. Sasikumar (Director of Animal husbandry and veterinary services in Chennai) because he was involved in a domestic violence case.
This made the aggrieved Dr. P. Sasikumar file a petition in Madras H.C against suspension of his service. Justice S Vaidyanathan after analyzing the case observed that it was done by the wife to trouble the husband after anticipating the divorce order. He stated, “Unfortunately, there is no law like Domestic Violence Act for a husband to proceed against wife in domestic relationships.” Subsequently, he ordered reinstating the officer within 15 days, quashing the order of suspension of a public official.
THE UNADDRESSED ISSUE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN
Domestic violence is a term that is always addressed concerning women. Men are always seen with the suspicion of the perpetrator. Violence is, however, nowadays, not only limited to women, but it victimizes men also. They are abused; physically, verbally, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, and sexually.
The cases of domestic violence against men usually go unreported. Men are the most silent victims of this abuse. The root cause of this is the gender-biased laws in India, which only favor and support women. They are seen and considered as the only victims of violence. It is hard for Indian society to believe that a woman can also inflict violence on males, maybe because of preconceived gender stereotypes.
Many a time, it is observed that, whether it is home or at the workplace, men are also forced to do the things they don’t do otherwise. At times, poor young men, having good educational qualifications are forced to marry someone or do some objectionable acts without his consent. Such people take advantage of their helplessness. There is no provision for men under the domestic violence act and even under the Indian Penal Code, as a society and law favor women as the weaker sex. As a result, there are many fake complaints lodged by the wife against the husband to satisfy their ego and to harass the husband and his family members on grounds of cruelty under section 498A, domestic violence, and false dowry cases.
This is evident from the case of Sushil Kumar v. Union of India, in which the Supreme Court observed that “Merely because section 498A is constitutional does not give rights and license to unscrupulous persons to wreck personal vendetta or unleashed harassment by misuse of the provision, new legal terrorism can be unleashed. This provision should be used as a shield against the wrong but not as an assassin’s weapon because when actual wolf appears then you won’t get the help”, “The fact that 498-A is a cognizable and non-bailable offense has lent a dubious place of pride amongst provisions that are used as weapons than a shield by disgruntled wives.” This observation was further supported in the case of Rajesh Sharma & Ors. v. State of UP and Anr, in which the SC passed an order to the police and magistrates stating that no person can be arrested instantly after being accused under section 498A, they need to conduct a proper investigation to ascertain the truthfulness of the claim at the first place. Thus, the Court was observed that “there was a growing pattern of cases where the women were misusing the legal provision to charge their husbands and his family members in criminal cases based on personal vengeance or ulterior motives.” Because of all these, the hapless men suffer a lot and do not get a respectable position in the family and society.
• Effects of domestic violence on men
It violates their basic human rights. It also gives rise to social evils like denial from family & society, divorce, depression, and sometimes leads them to commit suicide. As per the reports of WHO, it can also expose men to habits such as smoking, drinking, increases risk of drug consumption, etc. It may also lead to the criminal mentality in the person and may result in crimes and subsequent violence.
• Reasons for domestic violence cases against men remaining underreported
There are numerous reasons for men to not report or reveal the violence that happened with them, some of it includes;
• The existing gender stereotypes against men. It makes them feel ashamed in opening up against violence they had faced from a woman.
• No protection available to men in law from such abusive acts.
• Fear of it being judged as a fake case just for defending himself.
• Fear of facing legal consequences due to the false cases reported by the wife against him and his family members under section 498A.
• Fear of facing denial from the family and society.
• Fear of losing self-respect and dignity in society.
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
Today, at present three laws are regulating Domestic Violence in India. They are; Domestic Violence Act, 2005, The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, and Section 498A of IPC. But unfortunately, all these laws are women-centric and protect only women. They don’t even recognize men as victims under the ambit of laws. They are unable to lodge a complaint against their wives and in-laws for abuse and cruel treatment. Instead, they are being framed under false complaints filed by their wives. Notably, every time women are seen more sympathetically, whether it be for cruelty, violence, maintenance, etc. As a result of which, the false allegations on men for sexual harassment and rape are increasing rapidly. The DV Act was made for the protection of women from any kind of violence inflicted by men/women. The term ‘aggrieved person’ in the DV act includes only women. Even Section 498A of IPC includes only women in its ambit.
CURRENT SCENARIO
Today, in India, 98% of the men have been victims of domestic violence more than once in their lives. It was concluded in the research conducted by My Nation along with Save Family Foundation (Delhi) that economic violence with approximately 32.8% is most common in India, followed by emotional violence which is 22.2%, physical violence which is 25.2%, and sexual violence was found to be 17.7%. Also, the possibility of violence increases significantly with the duration of the marriage, particularly if it exists for more than seven years.
According to the National Family Health Survey, 2004, violence is not always done by the wives alone, but it has often been found that relatives of wives are also involved in bullying husbands. The cases of intimidation by wives and relatives of wives against husbands were calculated, as per which, 30 million men in India are suffering from Domestic Violence.
Subsequently, in a study conducted in a village in Haryana, it was found that 52.4% of males are facing gender-based violence and 51.5% of males have been victims of some sort of torture or violence by their wives in their lifetime.
NEED FOR GENDER-NEUTRAL LAWS
Justice is the right of every individual, whether it is a man or a woman. But, in India why is it that when a man or woman approaches the police to file a complaint of domestic violence, only the complaint of the woman is registered. Why can’t a man file a complaint about domestic violence? Can men not be the victim of domestic violence? The word domestic violence nowhere indicates that only women can be victimized. Men can also be the victim or say women can also be perpetrators. In the 21st century, where men are being falsely implicated for heinous crimes like domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault, the implementation of gender-neutral laws is the need of an hour.
In India, laws suggest that only a woman can seek protection by citing physical, mental, emotional, financial, sexual, or verbal abuse, but a man can’t. A man can only get a restraining order from the court which restrains the wife from committing violence against the husband and from even contacting him.
The Constitution of India under Part III ensures some basic fundamental rights to every citizen of India. Article 14 states that everyone has equal rights irrespective of their gender, and Article 15 provides that nobody can discriminate against any person on the grounds of sex, caste, and place of birth. But, what we witness in the Indian laws is opposite to the principle of equality. Where we are demanding equal rights for women to that of men, why don’t we also demand equal protection of men under laws like women? Even though the rate of domestic violence against men is less than that of women, they cannot be denied the right enshrined under the Constitution. Thus, they should also be protected and should have a say in law.
CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD
There is no systematic study or record as to how many husbands have been victimized by domestic violence in India. A lot of efforts have been made to rectify this problem. Even after several observations and judgments by the Supreme Court concerning the issue, and have strong evidence that the law is being misused a lot against men. Strangely, no changes have been made to the laws yet.
Living in a patriarchal country, we have been brought up with the idea that a man should always be strong and if he is suppressed by his wife, he is considered week. This problem is coming out in the form of a social stigma i.e. if a man puts his problem in front of society, he is ridiculed and his manhood is doubted. Somewhere we forget that it is not about man or woman, it is about right and wrong, we have given so much freedom to women, that in the name of justice to women, injustice is being done to men. How can any law be so biased that only a statement of a woman makes a man a criminal, without any further investigation?
Hence, it is very important to bring the amendments and special provisions to make gender-neutral laws in a patriarchal country like India. It will help to punish the accused, regardless of gender. Besides, Domestic violence should be considered as spousal violence, and not a women-centric one.
There should be made some special provisions for strict punishments for filing false complaints against an innocent person, which ultimately causes harm to his reputation, pride, dignity, and honor in the society due to the accusations of false charges. This may in some way reduce the level of false allegations against the husband by his wife or intimate partner.