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Law Point: DV-Act

1. Short title, extent and commencement.—
(1) This Act may be called the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
(3) It shall come into force on such date 1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official
Gazette, appoint.

2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “aggrieved person” means any woman who is, or has been, in a domestic relationship with the
respondent and who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent;
(b) “child” means any person below the age of eighteen years and includes any adopted, step or foster
child;
(c) “compensation order” means an order granted in terms of section 22;
(d) “custody order” means an order granted in terms of section 21;
(e) “domestic incident report” means a report made in the prescribed form on receipt of a complaint of
domestic violence from an aggrieved person;
(f) “domestic relationship” means a relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of
time, lived together 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;
(g) “domestic violence” has the same meaning as assigned to it in section 3;
(h) “dowry” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in section 2 of the Dowry Prohibition Act,
1961 (28 of 1961);
(i) “Magistrate” means the Judicial Magistrate of the first class, or as the case may be, the Metropolitan
Magistrate, exercising jurisdiction under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) in the area
where the aggrieved person resides temporarily or otherwise or the respondent resides or the domestic
violence is alleged to have taken place;
(j) “medical facility” means such facility as may be notified by the State Government to be a medical
facility for the purposes of this Act;
(k) “monetary relief” means the compensation which the Magistrate may order the respondent to pay to
the aggrieved person, at any stage during the hearing of an application seeking any relief under this
Act, to meet the expenses incurred and the losses suffered by the aggrieved person as a result of the
domestic violence;
(l) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette and the expression “notified”
shall be construed accordingly;

(m) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(n) “Protection Officer” means an officer appointed by the State Government under sub-section (1) of
section 8;
(o) “protection order” means an order made in terms of section 18;
(p) “residence order” means an order granted in terms of sub-section (1) of section 19;
(q) “respondent” means any adult male person who is, or has been, in a domestic relationship with the
aggrieved person and against whom the aggrieved person has sought any relief under this Act:
Provided that an aggrieved wife or female living in a relationship in the nature of a marriage may also
file a complaint against a relative of the husband or the male partner.
(r) “service provider” means an entity registered under sub-section (1) of section 10;
(s) “shared household” means a household where the person aggrieved lives or at any stage has lived in
a domestic relationship either singly or along with the respondent and includes such a household
whether owned or tenanted either jointly by the aggrieved person and the respondent, or owned or
tenanted by either of them in respect of which either the aggrieved person or the respondent or both
jointly or singly have any right, title, interest or equity and includes such a household which may belong
to the joint family of which the respondent is a member, irrespective of whether the respondent or the
aggrieved person has any right, title or interest in the shared household.
(t) “shelter home” means any shelter home as may be notified by the State Government to be a shelter
home for the purposes of this Act.
3. Definition of domestic violence.—For the purposes of this Act, any act, omission or commission
or conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence in case it—
(a) harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well‑being, whether mental or
physical, of the aggrieved person or tends to do so and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse,
verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse; or
(b) harasses, harms, injures or endangers the aggrieved person with a view to coerce her or any other
person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any dowry or other property or valuable
security; or
(c) has the effect of threatening the aggrieved person or any person related to her by any conduct
mentioned in clause (a) or clause (b); or

(d) otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or mental, to the aggrieved person. Explanation
I.—For the purposes of this section,—
(i) “physical abuse” means any act or conduct which is of such a nature as to cause bodily pain,
harm, or danger to life, limb, or health or impair the health or development of the aggrieved person
and includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force;
(ii) “sexual abuse” includes any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or
otherwise violates the dignity of woman;
(iii) “verbal and emotional abuse” includes—
(a) insults, ridicule, humiliation, name calling and insults or ridicule specially with regard to not
having a child or a male child; and
(b) repeated threats to cause physical pain to any person in whom the aggrieved person is
interested.
(iv) “economic abuse” includes­—
(a) deprivation of all or any economic or financial resources to which the aggrieved person is
entitled under any law or custom whether payable under an order of a court or otherwise or
which the aggrieved person requires out of necessity including, but not limited to, household
necessities for the aggrieved person and her children, if any, stridhan, property, jointly or
separately owned by the aggrieved person, payment of rental related to the shared household
and maintenance;
(b) disposal of household effects, any alienation of assets whether movable or immovable,
valuables, shares, securities, bonds and the like or other property in which the aggrieved person
has an interest or is entitled to use by virtue of the domestic relationship or which may be
reasonably required by the aggrieved person or her children or her stridhan or any other
property jointly or separately held by the aggrieved person; and
(c) prohibition or restriction to continued access to resources or facilities which the aggrieved
person is entitled to use or enjoy by virtue of the domestic relationship including access to the
shared household. Explanation II.—For the purpose of determining whether any act, omission,
commission or conduct of the respondent constitutes “domestic violence” under this section, the
overall facts and circumstances of the case shall be taken into consideration.
4. Information to Protection Officer and exclusion of liability of informant.—

(1) Any person who has reason to believe that an act of domestic violence has been, or is being, or is
likely to be committed, may give information about it to the concerned Protection Officer.
(2) No liability, civil or criminal, shall be incurred by any person for giving in good faith of information
for the purpose of sub-section (1).
5. Duties of police officers, service providers and Magistrate.—A police officer, Protection Officer,
service provider or Magistrate who has received a complaint of domestic violence or is otherwise
present at the place of an incident of domestic violence or when the incident of domestic violence is
reported to him, shall inform the aggrieved person—
(a) of her right to make an application for obtaining a relief by way of a protection order, an order for
monetary relief, a custody order, a residence order, a compensation order or more than one such order
under this Act;
(b) of the availability of services of service providers;
(c) of the availability of services of the Protection Officers;
(d) of her right to free legal services under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 (39 of 1987);
(e) of her right to file a complaint under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), wherever
relevant: Provided that nothing in this Act shall be construed in any manner as to relieve a police
officer from his duty to proceed in accordance with law upon receipt of information as to the
commission of a cognizable offence.
6. Duties of shelter homes.—If an aggrieved person or on her behalf a Protection Officer or a
service provider requests the person in charge of a shelter home to provide shelter

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