Supreme Court Directs States/UTs To File Report On Suggestions Given By Petitioner For Effective Implementation Of Domestic Violence Act

The Supreme Court today (November 2) directed the States and Union Territories to file a status report in response to the suggestions filed by the petitioner 'We The Women of India', a non-governmental organisation, for the effective implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA).

A bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and NK Singh passed the order after being informed by Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta (for petitioner) that suggestions have been filed in response to the Court's last order.

Essentially, Gupta on the previous hearing had informed the Court that the "assistance network" under the PWDVA comprising of provisions relating to Protection Officers, Service Providers, Shelter Homes, and Medical Facilities are not properly utilised. For instance, at least one Protection Officers are appointed in each district.

Notice was issued on November 8, 2021, pursuant to which the Union Government filed a detailed counter affidavit on February 2, 2023, after collecting and collating information from all States and Union Territories. Based on their responses, it was revealed that in many States and Union Territories, additional charges are given to the Protection Officers and they are often over-burdened.

In the counter affidavit filed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, it was admitted that out of a total of 3637 Protection Officers, only 710 are holding regular charges, 272 Protection Officers are working on a contract basis while 1655 are holding additional charges of Protection Officers.

The suggestions filed by the petitioner are as follows:

1. Based on the population of each district and the average number of complaints/ inquiries related to domestic violence, a requisite number of protection officers holding independent charge (as per section 8 of the Act minimum one in each district) shall be appointed by the State Government/ UT.

2. The protection officers shall not only be given regular awareness training on various legal aspects related to domestic violence complaints/ inquiries they may receive but they shall also need to be sensitized to ably assist the aggrieved women.

3. The States/ UT shall be directed to have requisite number of shelter homes and medical facilities in each to assist the aggrieved women (s. 6 & 7). The 'One Stop Centers' being created/established under the 'Mission Shakti Project' may come handy and can be associated under the umbrella of the Act for the purpose of providing shelter but the restriction of providing stay only for 3/5 days needs to be done away.

4. A panel of lawyers of District and State Legal Service Authorities to provide free legal aid/ services to the aggrieved women shall made available with each protection officer and the concerned Magistrate Court/ Police Station.

5. In almost each of its affidavit the Union has referred to 'Mission Shakti' and 'One Stop Centers' in response to the specific issue of regular appointment of 'Protection Officers' holding independent charge, service providers, shelter homes, medical facilities, trained and sensitized police officers, etc. Petitioner's concern is for implementation of mandate of the Act.

Mission Shakti/ One Stop Centers cannot replace/ supplant the mandatory provisions of the Act, they can though supplement the 'Assistance Network' conceptualized under the Act. Thus, a 'National Portal' may be created providing exhaustive details of the entire 'Assistance Network' fully functional with their addresses and contact details.

6. There should be a periodic review of functional status of the entire 'Assistance Network'.

7. There shall be a centralized scheme of allocation of funds for each State/UT dedicated to implementation and execution of the provisions of the Act including implementation of Section 11 of the Act in letter and spirit which means wide publicity of the provisions of the Act, awareness training and sensitization of all the stake holders be it judicial officers, police officers, protection officers, etc.

8. All the States/UTs may be directed to frame Recruitment Rules, create a separate Cadre structure for protection officers, and also to provide adequate office assistance to the Protection Officers.

9. A list of all the stakeholders of the 'Assistance Network' i.e. protection officers, service providers, shelter homes and medical facilities, shall be made available to each police station, if possible with a designated officer /desk to be attached with each Police station, area community centers, offices of local bodies, gram panchayat in villages and block level offices.

For office all necessary paraphernalia assistance shall be provided to each Protection Officer and for spreading information (wide publicity) about the provisions of the Act, the Asha workers, anganwaadi workers, district legal service authorities and NGOs may all be collaborated.

10. There is not much data available and apparently no proper study is made so far about the number of distress calls or inquiry calls made on Women Helpline (181) or 100 number for help. Similarly, there is no exhaustive study/ data available district or state-wise about the complaints made under the DVA or the cases of Domestic Violence pending in the Courts. An empirical study throughout the States/ UTs shall be conducted by the Central Government to understand need of each district in terms of having minimum number of protection officers, shelter homes and medical facilities, etc.

11. The delay in disposal of DVA cases even at the stage of passing orders of interim maintenance is again a very concerning issue. A direction for time bound disposal of such cases would be very helpful especially for the interim maintenance orders to be passed.

Case Details: WE THE WOMEN OF INDIA v UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.,W.P.(C) No. 1156/2021

Appearances: Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta, Adv. Aditya Ranjan (for Petitioners) and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati (for Union)

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