Can’t drag family members in domestic violence cases for not extending support to victim: SC

Family members of a person accused of domestic violence cannot be implicated in criminal cases without specific charges for simply not extending support to the victim, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

“There may be situations where some of the family members or relatives may turn a blind eye to the violence or harassment perpetrated to the victim, and may not extend any helping hand to the victim, which does not necessarily mean that they are also perpetrators of domestic violence, unless the circumstances clearly indicate their involvement and instigation,” a Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said.

“Hence, implicating all such relatives without making specific allegations and attributing offending acts to them and proceeding against them without prima facie evidence that they were complicit and had actively collaborated with the perpetrators of domestic violence, would amount to abuse of the process of law,” it said, while dealing with a dowry harassment case from Telangana under Section 498A of the IPC and certain provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Singh said, “We are, thus, of the view that in criminal cases relating to domestic violence, the complaints and charges should be specific, as far as possible, as against each and every member of the family who are accused of such offences and sought to be prosecuted, as otherwise, it may amount to misuse of the stringent criminal process by indiscriminately dragging all the members of the family.”

The top court quashed criminal proceedings with regard to alleged domestic violence against the family members of in-laws of the complainant woman.

The Bench, however, said that genuine cases of cruelty and violence in the domestic sphere—which do happen—ought to be handled with utmost sensitivity.

“Domestic violence typically happens within the four walls of the house and not in the public gaze. Therefore, such violence is not noticed by the public at large, except perhaps by the immediate neighbours.

Thus, providing visible evidence by the victim of domestic violence may not be easily forthcoming and producing direct evidence may be hard and arduous, which does not necessarily mean that domestic violence does not occur.

“In fact, to deal with this pernicious phenomenon, stringent statutes like Protection from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, have been enacted with very expansive meaning and scope of what amounts to domestic violence. Since, violence perpetrated within the domestic sphere by close relatives is now criminalized entailing serious consequences on the perpetrators; the courts have to be careful while dealing with such cases by examining whether there are specific allegations with instances against the perpetrators and not generalised allegations,” it said.

The Bench sought to emphasise that “the purpose and mandate of the law to protect the victims of domestic violence is of paramount importance, and as such, a balance has to be struck by ensuring that while perpetrators are brought to book, all the family members or relatives are not indiscriminately brought within the criminal net in a sweeping manner”.