Violence against women is a problem across the globe and it is a violation of fundamental freedom and rights, such as the right to liberty and security, as mentioned in the charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court observed.
Justice K. Murali Shankar said that it affects women of all races, ethnic groups, classes and nationalities. Every age group of women have been facing violence in their life.
The phenomenon of domestic violence is widely prevalent in India but remains invisible in the public domain. United Nations Committee on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in its general recommendation, requires the States to protect women against violence of any crime, especially occurring within the family.
Accordingly, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act came to be enacted. The term ‘domestic violence’ has widened its scope to recognise domestic abuse as a punishable offence and the Act recognises women’s right to a violence-free home, the judge said.
The judge made the observations while referring the issues to a larger Bench of the Court to decide whether the proceedings initiated under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act before the Magistrate Courts are civil proceedings or criminal proceedings.
Whether the proceedings initiated under the Domestic Violence Act and pending before the Magistrate Court can be transferred to the civil court or family court by invoking Article 227 of the Constitution (Power of superintendence over all courts by the High Court). The judge also raised other connected queries with regard to the issue.
The Registry was directed to place the matter before the Chief Justice for considering the issues for resolution by a larger Bench. The judge took note of the fact that there were conflicting judgments in the issue and raised the queries while hearing a batch of civil revision petitions.
