SYNOPSIS

OF
DISSERTATION

INTRODUCTION

A woman is known to selflessly play a spectrum of roles in our society starting with a noble
mother who brings a new life into the world, a sister, a wife and a daughter. Such a woman is
the very fabric that binds the society into a strong yet vibrant fabric. In spite of her
contribution in the life of every individual human being, she still belongs to a class of society
that is in a disadvantaged position on account of several social barriers and hindrances. She
has forever been the victim of tyranny at the hands of the man who dominates the society.
Thinking retrospectively, according to the ancient literature, a woman enjoyed excellent
standing and respect in the society but the same has deteriorated to such an extent that
presently a woman suffers from womb to tomb and is suffering at every juncture of her life.
Among the various kinds of violence a woman is subjected to, cruelty against a married
woman at the hands of her husband and/or his relatives is one of the most heinous conducts.
Although, at the turn of this century more and more women who are subjected to such
cruelty, have a better chance at a fair trail and justice; a lot more is yet to be achieved. Still,
from time to time, there occurs a case from within all layers of our society, where a woman
has been treated with contempt and subjected to heinous crimes at the hands of her husband
and in-laws. Or at other times, a woman gets frustrated of living every waking moment in
utter despair with a constant fear of her life, to a point where she chooses to put an end to her
hopeless, hapless and helpless life on her own.

True development, however, has another facet and that is the character of our nation. To truly
call ourselves civilized, forward, educated and mature it is imperative that we treat
womanhood with the long overdue dignity that it deserves. Ending atrocity and cruelty
against a woman, in all forms, so that she is guaranteed a respectful existence, first and
foremost as a human being and then as a free individual and moreover as a woman is a shared
responsibility of all of us.
A social evil of this kind can be eradicated by taking corrective measures at multiple levels;
from educating women to increasing awareness among them, sometimes via unconventional
methods using media, our school systems or even via not-for-profit women organizations for
a greater outreach of the message to women in our rural areas. This will empower women to
make informed choices and decisions as they garner the courage to stand up for themselves
on path to true liberation.

It has been observed that while various reasons such as physical, mental, psychological as
well as social are attributed to offences of cruelty against woman, our judicial system plays a
unique role in this matter. While giving a victim woman the hope of fair and speedy justice, it
can curb the devilish nature of humanity itself by punishing greedy, evil and heartless
husbands and in-laws with no conscience and fear otherwise and thereby set an example for
other culprits to refrain from attempting such offences of cruelty against woman. The judicial
system also serves a vital purpose of encouraging other victim women to come forth to seek
justice or stress on the importance of, at the minimum, making sure that a trail of strong
documentary evidence is in place to help the judiciary, just in case. It is this judicial response
system that the current thesis aims at analysing in greater depth and detail. As will be clearly
observed from chapters below, in some cases, as complicated as they are, judicial responses
have been swift and fair in favour of the victim woman and convicting the accused, while in
other cases, clear loopholes, contentions and contradictions exist that have ended up resulting
in unfortunate acquittal of the accused. This thesis hopes at providing a deeper insight into
judicial responses to cruelty against a woman and looks forward to the dawn of a new era on
the horizon where the shameful evil of cruelty against a woman will be abolished from our
society altogether.

According to the Indian Penal Code, cruelty against woman is dealt with by a penal provision
under section 498-A of Indian Penal Code. Also, although `cruelty' as such has been grounds
for matrimonial relief under marriage acts in India, cruel conducts of husband at times seem
stretched beyond our wildest imaginations - to such an extent that even the judiciary
explained some such conduct of the husband and/or his relatives as 'cruelty of beastly type' as
seen in the following judicial response. In State Of Maharashtra, Appellant V. Ambarnath
Bapusaheb Gade And Others1, a woman namely Jaishree was compelled to fetch Rupees
5,000/- from her father by her husband. She was also ill-treated by the accused husband and
1
In State Of Maharashtra, Appellant V. Ambarnath Bapusaheb Gade And Others, 1998
insulted because she was black incomplexion and was addressed as Kali. One day as Jaishree
was sleeping in the courtyard around midnight or to be precise to be about at 1.00 a.m., her
husband accused No. 1 came there and woke her up, gagged her mouth, tied both her legs,
took her on his shoulders and brought her to his farm or agricultural land and laid her down
on the soil below a mango tree. She was asked whether she had brought the amount claimed,
she told the husband that she did not bring any amount with her, accused No. 1 got annoyed,
he tied her both feet and hands and after removing her mangalsutra and other ornaments
committed rape (word rape is used in the judgment whereby husband committed forcible
intercourse with his wife namely Jaishree) upon her. In the meantime other accused No. 2
was her father-in-law, accused No. 3 was his brother-in-law, accused No. 4 maternal uncle
and accused No. 5 one of the neighbours. Of the aforesaid accused, all of them came there
and in succession all of them committed rape upon her. The very fact that after this gang rape
by close relatives and respected relatives like father-in-law, brother-in-law, the woman
namely Jaishree became a patient of hysterical amnesia. While convicting all the accused on
an appeal by State Hon. Justice D. G. Deshpande of Bombay High court held as "The conduct
of the accused can be aptly described as the conduct of lusty brutes who display the
unscrupulous, deceitful and insidious act of committing gang rape of Jaishree when she had
come to their house with all hopes of leading a married life with accused No. 1 even
forgiving him for his second marriage, but in the night of 8-5-1988 wassubjected to gang
rape, therefore this is a case which requires severe punishment."

While analysing the above judgment it can be submitted that one of the basic reason for such
a heinous conduct was the demand of Rupees 5000/-from wife's father. Such an act can
clearly come under the purview of dowry, and there are a number of cases decided and others
pending wherein brides were burnt or abetted to commit suicide for dowry or other reasons
and several other cases pending in the court of law for matrimonial relief and justice against
cruel conduct of husband and/or his relatives. Marriage, according to the community to which
parties belong, is sacramental and is believed to have been ordained in heaven. The religious
rites performed at the marriage altar clearly indicate that the man accepts the woman as his
better-half by assuring her protection as guardian, ensuring food and necessities of life as the
provider, guaranteeing companionship as the mate and by resolving that the pleasures and
sorrows in the pursuit of life shall be shared with her and Dharma shall be observed. If this be
the concept of marriage, there would be no scope to look for worldly considerations,
particularly 'dowry'2. The report of the Joint Committee of Parliament quoted the observation
of our first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru to indicate the role of legislation in dealing
with the social evil as, "Legislation cannot by itself normally solve deep-rooted social
problems. One has to approach them in other ways too, but legislation is necessary and
essential, so that it may give that push and have that educative factor as well as the legal
sanctions behind it which help public opinion to be given a certain shape." Hon. Prime
Minister Nehru proved prophetic because despite various legislations, the menace of dowry
deaths is unfortunately seen increasing at an alarming speed. Ordinarily, legislations are
based on public opinion but at times legislations can create public opinion as well.
Regrettably, despite much legislation, we have not been able to control dowry deaths.
Perhaps, greater social awareness and more severe legislative measures are urgently required
to curb the menace of dowry related deaths. To our information, in no other civilized country
similar problem of this magnitude exists. This is indeed a slur on our great heritage, ancient
culture and civilization. Even after various enactments this position has not changed and
prohibitive enactments just end up as becoming a paper tiger for various reasons.

Such a position was also observed in Vikas, Appellant V. State Of Rajasthan, Respondent3
by Hon. Justice Shah wherein it was held as, "Daily, the demon of dowry is devouring the
lives of young girls, who marry with high hopes of having heavenly abode in their husband's
house. In a few cases, the guilty are punished but it has no deterrent effect on mothers-in-law
or sisters-in-law who might have suffered similar cruelty/tyranny. This deep-rooted social
evil requires to be controlled not only by effective implementation of the Dowry Prohibition
Act, 1961, but also by the society. The society has to find out ways and means of controlling
and combating this menace of receipt and payment of dowry. It appears that instead of
controlling payment and receipt of dowry in one or the other form, it is increasing even in the
educated class. Maybe it isincreasing because of accumulation of unaccounted wealth with a
few and others having less means follow the same out of compulsion."
Although dowry is the one of the basic reasons of cruelty it can be observed from various
cases quoted below that woman is also harassed for various reasons other then dowry. In
State Of Karnataka, Appellant V. K. S. Manjunathachari And Others,4 Respondents 4 Hon.
Justice held that, "We have no doubt in our mind that accuse husband is guilty under section
498-A for unreasonably suspecting the chastity of the deceased at the time of her marriage to
2
Ibid
3
Vikas, Appellant V. State Of Rajasthan, Respondent, 2001
4
In State Of Karnataka, Appellant V. K. S. Manjunathachari And Others, AIR 1564
A-1 and causing unbearable cruelty to her which led to her untimely death." Also in Sanjay
Vyankatrao Chadranarayan V. State of Maharashtra 5, Hon. Justice of Nagpur bench while
dealing with the appeal file by the accuse husband against conviction under section 498-A of
Indian penal code for committing cruelty against his wife held as From the evidence on
record, it is established that the applicant (husband) not only used to beat deceased, but he
also suspected her chastity and also made imputations that she was not able to bear a child.
The Division Bench further observed that the expression cruelty postulates such a treatment
as to cause reasonable apprehension in the mind of the wife that her living with the husband
will be harmful and injurious to her life. In the case under consideration before us, there is
evidence on record that the applicant used to beat the deceased and even on the day of
incident and on previous night, she was beaten. In addition, the applicant was imputing
chastity as also the imputation that she could not bear child. These allegations, by themselves
amount to mental cruelty. Likewise Hon. Justice J. G. Chitre in Ganesh Bhagwan Jadhav V.
State of Maharashtra 6 held as "The allegations against chastity would be the first along with
many other grounds hurting the pride of the womanhood of said newly wedded wife. It
appears to be natural that accusation made by the appellant touching her chastity in context
with young boy residing in the neighbourhood namely Saudagar Jadhav was sufficient to
make her disheartened. It was sufficient enough to humiliate her to the point of frustrations It
was sufficient to molest her self respect of womanhood after acquiring the status of a wedded
wife.

A young woman recently married and experiencing married life would get definitely
frustrated on account of such accusation from her husband and that too within short span of
married life. Though the trial Judge has not expressed himself in proper words, he has rightly
concluded that the appellant was the cause for abetting deceased to commit suicide."
Above mentioned cases of cruel conduct of the husband shed light on the worsening status of
woman in present days. Indian statues protects woman against such harassment by initiating
criminal proceedings against her husband with a view to punishing the guilty. It also provides
a victim woman her right to initiate civil proceeding.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
5
Sanjay Vyankatrao Chadranarayan V. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1775
Post-Independence Era

In the post-independence period the Indian woman had a number of achievements to her
credit, in the field of nuclear physics, computer sciences, administration, management, art
and humanities. They have in many ways proved equal to men and have won several laurels.
Yet, they continue to be subject to various forms of class, caste and gender oppression. The
deep-rooted patriarchal values, social and religious traditions continue to reinforce the
subordinate status of the Indian woman. The sex based arbitrary division of male and female
roles in the society keeps women under the control of the men.

Even in post-independence era woman has always played many roles during various stages of
her life as a daughter, wife, mother and sister etc. but despite her such a sacred position and
contribution in the life of every human being, she still gets neglected, exploited, victimized
and suppressed by male dominated society. Patriarchal bias has put them into a vulnerable
position and made men unjustifiable superior, owing to which crime against women galore6.

Women still belongs to a class that is in a disadvantaged position on account of various

social, political, economic and psychological barriers and impediments. This pattern of
cruelty against women is worldwide. On one hand, woman is worshipped, respected and
considered as the embodiment of all the virtues and tolerance but on the other hand, she is
exploited, victimized and suppressed by the male dominated society.

1.2 Present Situation of Women in Indian Society

It is in the aforementioned background that, among other atrocities, violence and crime
against women within the family led to a number of matrimonial offences resulting in their
exploitation in the name of marriage. In recent times, violence and crimes against women
within the family have shown an upward trend. There has been in the recent times a
significant increase in crime against women which has increased by 8.3% and 4.8% over the
rate of 1997 and 1996 respectively. In absolute numbers, an increase of 10,073 cases was
reported at All India level in 1998 over number of 1997.7

6
Ratna Kapoor, Brenda Cossman Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in India, (1996) p.52

7
Source: National Crimes Research Bureau, Home Ministry, Goverenment of India, (1998)
The equality of status guaranteed by the Constitution of India is only a myth to millions of
women who are victims of violence within the family. Wife beating, child sexual abuse and
other forms of domestic violence, abortion of female fetuses, dowry deaths and bride burning
are all forms of violence that happen to women within the privacy of home.

POSITION OF WOMAN IN MODERN PERIOD

The most important event after Independence has been the drafting of the Constitution of this

country enshrining the principles of equality, liberty and social justice. The framers of the

constitution were aware of the sociology of the problem of emancipation of the female sex.

They realized that equality was important of the development of the nation. It was evident

that, in order to eliminate inequality and to provide opportunities for the exercise of the

human rights, it was necessary to promote education and economic interests of women. It

became the objective of the State to protect women from exploitation and provide social

justice. All these ideals were enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. Under the

leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, it was directed to take a path of social change by

guaranteeing formal equality, economic justice and making the State a welfare state.

The Preamble to the Indian constitution resolved to secure to all its citizens justice – social,
economic and political; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; equality of
status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all assuring the dignity of the
individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. To attain these objectives, the
Constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights and freedoms: such as freedom of speech
and expression, protection of life and personal liberty. Indian women are beneficiaries of
these rights in the same manner as men. Articles 14, 15 and 16 ensure equality and prohibit

discrimination on the basis, inter alia, of sex. The directive principles of the state policy,
though are not justiciable, are considered by the State in formulating policies and laws. Some
of the directives are: 1) providing free and compulsory education to children (now recognised
as a fundamental right); 2) providing adequate means of livelihood for men and women,
equal pay for equal work, and maternity reliefs. In short, fundamental rights and directive
principles provide the framework to achieve the ideals of the Preamble. Fundamental duties,
too, recognise upholding the dignity of women as one of the duties.

International Approach on Cruelty against Women

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or
other status." 8

The World Health Organization reports that violence against women puts an undue burden on
health care services with women who have suffered violence being more likely to need health
services and at higher cost, compared to women who have not suffered violence. Several
studies have shown a link between poor treatment of women and international violence.
These studies show that one of the best predictors of international violence and intra national

violence is the maltreatment of women in the society. Worldwide governments and

organizations actively work to combat violence against women through a variety of
programs. A UN resolution designated 25 November as International Day for the Elimination
of Violence against Women.

The position of women in India is no better. Though they are given formal equality under the
law in the public as well as family sphere, these laws have been of little help to improve the
position of women. Women have been traditionally a suppressed class in India and the
drafters of the constitution were well aware of this fact. Special provisions were hence made
in the constitution for their benefit.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Statistics reveals that the cases of cruelty against women are increasing at an alarming pace.
Violence against women is not a new phenomenon. Women have to bear the burns of
physical, emotional and mental violence both in a domestic household as well as at public
places. This affects her status in the society at a larger extent. The statistics of increasing
crimes against women is shocking.

8
Article 2, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Adoption of the Constitution which hailed gender justice and protection of women did not
achieve the salutary and avowed objectives of “Justice-social, economic and political”.
Women in India continue to suffer and be subjected to heinous crimes such as assault,
feticide, infanticide, medical neglect, child marriages, bride burning, sexual abuse of girl
child, forced marriages, rapes, prostitution, sexual harassment at home as well as work places
etc. Although there are so many laws and acts are present in the country also various
legislative efforts have been made to alleviate the suffering of women and to prevent
commission of offences against women like Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Section 498A of
IPC1860, Domestic Violence Act 2005 etc. Yet there are several controversies arises in
different cases related to Term Cruelty which can been seen in recent judicial
pronouncements.

Hypotheses:

Keeping in view the above objectives, the following hypotheses are formulated for the
purpose of the study.

1. The existing laws against domestic violence are deficient and inadequate to protect
the rights of women;
2. Judicial contribution to the protection of the rights of women is positive but the
impact of judicial decisions is minimal;

LITERATURE REVIEW

During the course of my research work, these following books gave clear concept :- This
book “Violence Against Women - Need to Awaken the Conscious of Humanity” by Dr.
Mrs. Annie John is a collection of articles by various authors which is divided into five
sections. It has discussed about the issues of Women and Society, Human Rights of Women,
Violence Against Women-Challenges and Strategies, Protection of Womanhood in India and
Hidden from Justice – A Sexual Violence for Realization. This study has enhanced the
knowledge of violence against women dating back from the vedic times which establishes
that Indian society is patriarchal in structure.

Law Relating to Protection of Women from Domestic Violence by Dr. Suman Rai is a
book which has defined about the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the procedures to approach
the court and its remedies and also described about the international instruments and
conventions on domestic violence.

The authors Suruchi Shukla, Anjana Fellows and Neelma Kunwar in their book “Violence
On Women” has presented the various forms and characteristics of domestic violence and
the categories of domestic violence. This book has defined about the partner’s dominance,
humiliation, isolation, threats, intimidation, denial and blame against spouse.

In the books, viz., “Women and Human Right” by Sri S.P. Tondge and “Women’s
Human Right” by Ashok Kumar, the authors referred about Women’s status and human
rights and girls of all ages. It mentioned about their freedoms which are either ignored or
suppresses by law, custom and behaviour in a particular society.

In the book “Marriage and Adjustment” the author Dr. Javnika Seth has done a wonderful
research on marriage and marital adjustment and that it contains about the custom of marriage
– love or arranged. This book also talked about the changing concept of marriage in India and
factors affecting marital adjustment between the spouse.

In the books “Law Relating to Women and Children” by Mamta Rao “Law Relating to
Women and Children” by Dr. S.C. Tripathi and Vibha Arora endeavoured their effort to
address various laws on women and children being subjected to humiliating inferiority of
status, subordination in opportunities and discrimination in civil, political, social, economic
and cultural right. Another book on “Women Laws” by Professional contains all the Bare
Acts relating to women on crime against women.

The author Dr. Kadambari Saxena in her book “Gender Sensitisation” has portrayed about
the role of women in all aspects of life ie., economic, social, political and cultural - a women
being described as a competent person to handle a job and a better wife and homemaker. This
book has also talked about improving the status of women, to fight against all atrocities and
harassment and most importantly getting knowledge and awareness about laws on them.

The author Astha Bhanot in her book “Gender Violence” provided an overall view on
gender violence taking place in this global age with elaborative discussions and the complex
subject matter relating to various issues.
“Protection of Women from Domestic Violence” is a book by P.K. Das. Here the author
gave a clear idea about the legislations on Domestic Violence, its allied Acts & Rules,
Relevant provisions of allied Act, international conventions, Reports of Law Commission of
India, Supreme Court and High Court on Domestic Violence and its allied offences. The
author has narrated quite nicely about the above mentioned parts.

“Law Relating to Dowry Deaths” by Ram Shelkar is a book about two most important
sections of Indian Penal Code ie., Section 304-B & Section 498-A which is related to dowry
and cruelty and harassment against married women. Also briefly discussed about Section 2 of
Dowry Prohibition Act and Section 113-A of Indian Evidence Act which is about the
presumption of death.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study is descriptive, interpretative and analytical in nature. The research is doctrinal in
nature and both primary and secondary data has been used.

In order to make the study in its proper socio legal prospective, the research study has been
divided into eight chapters. The work on the subject cannot proceed without making a study
of the concept of domestic violence and system of Dowry along with its relevant incidents,
which leads to cruelty against women and emerging problems, this with the general
introduction has been discussed as under:

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The present study is analytical, interpretative and descriptive in nature and have following
aims and objectives: -

1. To study the Judicial Pronouncements and new judicial trends on the law of cruelty.
2. To find out the drawbacks and lacunas in the implementation of present enactments.
3. To study the abuse of the process of law u/s 498-A, I.P.C.
4. To study the data pertaining to the cruelty against women and the role of NCW and
Crime Against Women (Cell).
5. To inculcate suggestions and precautionary measures regarding the problem.
LIST OF CHAPTERS (TENTATIVE)

Chapter I: Chapter I is an introductory chapter. In this chapter a brief overview of the

position of women in society, meaning of term cruelty and attempts made to deal with the
problem of cruelty against women is discussed. I have also discussed the reason why I have
chosen this research topic. Women is the one who give birth to human life and now a days
her position in the society has determined to such an extent that she has become a chattel.
Basic human rights are also denied to the women. What is more alarming is that cruelty
against women is increasing despite the increasing number of cases filed by women in the
Courts for cruelty? It is because the law is of such nature that actual victims find it difficult to
avail their rights conferred by special legislations and all these legislations are being misused
by certain class of women. It is in this backdrop that I felt the necessity to throw some light
on cruelty against women, effective implementation of women protection laws and suggested
changes. Besides this the, research methodology, object of this research, hypothesis and
limitations of research are also discussed. The objective of this chapter is to give an
introduction of the topic to the reader so the object of the research and message conveyed
therein could be understood.

Chapter II: To have a better understanding of the issue it is essential to know the position of
women in the Indian society and worldwide and how it has undergone a change from ancient
times to modern times. So, in chapter II the position of women in modern India as well as
worldwide while emphasizing on the fact that how it has deteriorated with development of
technology and education standard in the society have been discussed.

Thereafter moving to Modern Indian position of women both during British period and post-
independence is discussed. How the position of women has been degenerated at the onset of
modern era i.e., from 1819 A.D to 1905 A.D has been discussed at length. An attempt has
been made to assess what was the status of women in this period in different spheres of life
and how far she was enjoying basic human rights. Special emphasis has been given to the
position of girl child as female infanticide was at peak in this era.

After discussing position of women over the period it was clear that the position of woman in
India has disintegrated with passage of time. However, increase in cruelty against women has
unfold a movement for protection of women’s right. This chapter has also discussed the
progress of this movement and how it has compelled the law makers to make specific laws to
provide protection to women and to give her equal status in the society. Firstly, this chapter
throws light on the constitutional safeguards provided to a woman by the drafters of the
Indian Constitution. But soon it was felt that these provisions though aim at providing equal
status to women but has no provision to protect her from violence. How need was felt to
enact the special legislations and women movement for the same was divided into three
phases which are discussed at length. The first phase of women’s movement was initiated in
the pre independence era wherein abolition of inhuman practice of sati and child marriage
was demanded. The second phase of the women’s movement had begun during the freedom
struggle. As the women had become more vigilant about her rights various demands such as
equal political representation and reforms in Hindu Personal Laws were demanded to ensure
equal social and political status. It was argued that denial of equal status is denial of human
right. The chapter has dealt each and every reform demanded in detail. Thereafter, came the
post-independence period which witnessed whooping changes in the law for protection of
women against cruelty. This phase has been discussed as the third phase of women’s
movement in the chapter. It lays down the background which has set the stage for the
legislature to penalize the act of cruelty against women. In this chapter it has been discussed
that how need had arisen to enact special legislations such a Dowry Prohibition Act etc
however the details of the said legislations have been discussed in subsequent chapters.

Chapter III: To understand any problem it is essential to know its meaning and scope.
Chapter III will broadly lay down the meaning, scope and kinds of cruelty. An attempt has
also been made to see how the term cruelty has been defined differently in various special
legislations enacted to deal with cruelty against women. I have also discussed the judicial
approach and various decisions of the Apex Court which has widened the scope of term
cruelty from time to time through its judicial pronouncements.

Chapter IV: This chapter will deal with the laws and provisions enacted for curbing the
menace of dowry demand which is one of the major causes of matrimonial cruelty and
domestic violence against women. Mere enactment of any law does not serve the purpose. In
order to achieve the desired goal, it is essential that it is effectively implemented and
judiciary plays a pivotal role in implementation of any law. Therefore, while discussing the
legal enactments for dowry demand related crimes, matrimonial cruelty and domestic
violence, I shall also discuss the judicial trends and how the provisions have been interpreted
by lower Courts as well Higher Courts in India.
At present mainly there are two provisions which keep a check on the evil of dowry demand.
One is Dowry Prohibition Act and the other is Section 304B of Indian Penal Code. The
former makes mere demand of dowry punishable whereas the latter deals with a graver
situation where non fulfilment of dowry demand has led to death of the bride either by
suicide or otherwise. Both these enactments are discussed at length with judicial trends.

Experience shows that dowry demand is not the only reason for infliction of cruelty on
women and neither every time dowry demand leads to the death of the bride. Need was felt to
protect such women also and hence Section 498A of Indian Penal Code was enacted. Present
Chapter of this study gives details of Section 498A of Indian Penal Code also. Also, with
advent of time our society has witnessed rampant misuse of this provision. In this chapter
reasons for its misuse and suggestions to stop the same are also given. At the same time an
attempt has been made to show how judicial decisions have contributed in development of
this law by discussing various judgments of the Apex Court and the High Courts across the
country. Matrimonial cruelty is one of the forms of violence but a woman is not safe even
otherwise and heinous crimes like rape are alarmingly on rise. Hence an overview is given of
other penal provisions enacted specially to give protection to women. However, these are not
discussed at length as the objective of this paper is to assess the performance of women
protection law enacted to protect women against domestic violence.

All over the world it was felt that violence against women is not confined to her matrimonial
home. Domestic violence is a wider term covering any kind of violence on a woman by any
person sharing a household with her. Worldwide violence against women was acknowledged
as a human rights problem. Various conventions were made making it obligatory for the
signatory countries to draft such law which protects a woman in all kinds of domestic
violence. In this chapter it has been discussed that how these international convention and
other national factors lead to the enactment of Protection of Women against Domestic
Violence Act. An over view of its provisions with a detailed interpretation and shortcomings
of the same are discussed. This chapter also gives certain suggestions to improve the
shortcomings. The chapter also deals with the judicial interpretation of the provisions of this
Act.

Chapter V: Delhi is the capital of our country. People from different states are coming to
Delhi for various purposes and settle down here, thereby constituting its immigrant
population. Statistics reveal that the total number of immigrants from different states exceeds
the number of persons originally born and brought up in Delhi. It has a rich confluence of
persons representing different culture and religions. Further, it has people from different
economic stature-some extremely wealthy and some in penury too. So Delhi is a place which
reflects the true secularism spirit of the nation. Hence, my research has been centered at Delhi
and study the approach of its populace towards gender inequality. In this chapter data such as
incidents of crime occurred and incidents of crime against women reported etc has been
collected from various sources and analyzed. An attempt is made to assess the situation of
women and performance of law enforcing agencies with respect to women protection laws
and how it is different in Delhi as compared to other States or the same. It is also discussed
that whether being capital of the country does Delhi fair better in implementation of women
protection laws.

CONCLUISON AND SUGGESTIONS