Domestic violence as a crime and a tort
LUG-101 Law of Torts including Motor Vehicle Accident and Consumer Protection Act, Unit III: Domestic violence as a crime and a tort. · LLB · 60 min
Domestic violence is at once a group of crimes, a group of torts and the subject of a special civil statute. The lecture explains the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005: its definitions (aggrieved person, domestic relationship, respondent, shared household), the four forms of domestic violence in s. 3, the machinery (Protection Officers, the application to the Magistrate under s. 12) and the reliefs of ss. 17-22 (residence, protection, monetary relief, custody and compensation), with the leading Supreme Court cases: S.R. Batra v. Taruna Batra (2007) and Satish Chander Ahuja v. Sneha Ahuja (2020) on the shared household, Indra Sarma v. V.K.V. Sarma (2013) on relationships in the nature of marriage, and Hiral P. Harsora v. Kusum Narottamdas Harsora (2016) on who may be a respondent. It then sets out the criminal law (BNS ss. 85-86, 80, 108, 115-117, 127, 351) and the torts committed (battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress), and compares spousal tort suits in England and the United States.
Objectives
- Explain why domestic violence is treated as a crime, a tort and a matter for special civil remedies.
- State the definitions in s. 2 and the four forms of domestic violence in s. 3 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005.
- Describe the reliefs available under ss. 17-22 of the 2005 Act and how they are obtained.
- Explain the shared household (S.R. Batra; Satish Chander Ahuja), relationships in the nature of marriage (Indra Sarma) and who may be a respondent (Hiral Harsora).
- Identify the offences under the BNS and the torts committed by acts of domestic violence, and compare the remedies.
Slides
- Domestic violence: one act, three kinds of law
- The 2005 Act: key definitions (s. 2)
- What is domestic violence? (s. 3)
- Machinery and procedure
- The reliefs: ss. 17-22
- The shared household: S.R. Batra (2007) and Satish Chander Ahuja (2020)
- Relationships in the nature of marriage: Indra Sarma (2013)
- Who can be a respondent? Hiral P. Harsora (2016)
- Domestic violence as a crime
- Domestic violence as a tort; England and the United States
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