Updated: April 1, 2015 08:08 IST
"..Mr. Balakrishnan also pointed out that Section 498 A of the IPC, which gave women legal recourse for dowry harassment, was one of the most misused legal provisions in the country. …"
Special courts sought to handle domestic violence cases
Special family courts should be set up in the districts to handle cases filed under the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act (PWDV Act) to ensure that women get due relief and justice, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission K.G. Balakrishnan has said.
Addressing a national seminar on the PWDV Act, organised by the State Social Welfare Board and the Department of Social Justice here on Tuesday, Mr. Balakrishnan said there were few magistrates today who had the experience and wisdom to handle the Act, many provisions of which had serious legal implications and which needed to be dealt with sensitively.
He suggested that at least two special family courts be set up in every district to handle domestic violence cases as the magistrates' courts were at present overburdened and the provisions of the PWDV Act were too serious to be interpreted lightly.
Mr. Balakrishnan also pointed out that Section 498 A of the IPC, which gave women legal recourse for dowry harassment, was one of the most misused legal provisions in the country. He said that lawyers were to be partly blamed for it as most of them tagged on a charge under Section 498 A also to every other case to throw more weight behind the original case or just harass the opposite party.
Minister for Social Justice M.K. Muneer said the government had decided to give statutory powers to 'jagratha samithis' as these had a crucial role to play in monitoring issues of domestic violence or sexual abuse at the grassroots level.
Dr. Muneer said the government had also issued new guidelines to the effect that schoolteachers and anganwadi teachers were responsible for reporting to the police any case of sexual abuse or domestic violence against children that they may come across. He said Kudumbasree was currently engaged in a social crime-mapping exercise across the State to collect information at the local level and identify if there were areas in the State which were more vulnerable to social crimes.
source : The HINDU
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