Analysing Orders Granted under the PWDVA, 2005

Abstract

This chapter describes the trends and patterns of usage of the PWDVA and examines judicial approaches towards adjudication under the Act. This chapter is based on an empirical analysis of approximately 7,000 Magistrate Court orders from 14 states between 2012 and 2013. The objective behind the analysis is to assess the implementation of the PWDVA in a manner true to its objectives. The analysis includes pattern of usage, profile of users, nature of DV, reliefs sought and granted, reasons for refusal to grant relief such as protection orders, compensation, residence orders, custody of children, maintenance orders. Judicial attitudes and adjudicatory practices indicate that courts tend to locate their maintenance decisions on a male ‘moral duty’ to maintain the wife or mother, rather than on her entitlement to economic support for the services she performs and that the judicial process mostly lacks the multi-agency approach envisaged under the PWDVA.