This Act gives women a civil remedy against violence inside the home, which is what distinguishes it from the criminal provision on cruelty by a husband or his relatives. It applies to any woman in a domestic relationship, so it covers wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, widows and women in relationships in the nature of marriage, and the respondent may be an adult male family member and in some circumstances his female relatives.
Its definition of domestic violence in Section 3 is broad. It covers physical harm, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse including insults and humiliation over dowry or not having a male child, and economic abuse, meaning withholding money, denying access to household resources or disposing of a woman’s assets. That last category is often the most useful and the least understood.
The central protection is Section 17, the right to reside in the shared household. A woman cannot be thrown out of the home she lives in simply because it is owned by her husband or his family. Magistrates can pass protection orders stopping further violence or contact, residence orders restraining dispossession or requiring alternative accommodation, monetary relief for maintenance and expenses, custody orders for children and compensation orders.
Enforcement runs through Protection Officers and service providers appointed by state governments, who help file the Domestic Incident Report and access shelter, medical aid and legal aid. Applications are meant to be disposed of within sixty days, and interim relief can be granted ex parte. Breaching a protection order is a cognisable, non bailable criminal offence under Section 31.