Domestic conflict is the largest single cause of violence. One of three women faces types of domestic violence from their husband or his family members. This is an average based on available national surveys across industrialized and developing countries. The only largest scale indicator of violence against women is the data relating to crimes against woman published by the National Crime Record Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Government of India in 2012. Globally, violence within the home is universal across culture, religion, class and ethnicity. But in the last two decades, the Indian women’s empowerment has contributed to a growing and tremendous public awareness of violence against women. Now, women have proven themselves s in almost every field of life, affirming that they are no less than men. But still we have seen abounding reports of violence against women. An important factor for determining the domestic violence is the subordinate status of women combined with socio cultural norms that are inclined towards patriarchy and masculinity.
The main concerns arising from all this is that despite, Government have provided protection to these women and have initiated to set up institutional sources. Under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA), government has ensured to appoint Protection Officer (PO), preferably women (with independent charge) and further ensured effective functioning of PO. In our previous article we already had a detailed discussion of powers and duties of PO. In this article we’ll talk about jurisdiction which are the major distress for women who are not aware that who and where they can approach in difficult period and to file their complaint, our present article will cover the whole picture of seeking help and from where.
JURISDICTION:
Before we start we should know what word jurisdiction means
Cambridge Dictionary explains jurisdiction as “the authority of a court or official organization to make decisions and judgement.”
Another meaning is the practical authority granted to a legal body to administer justice with a defined filed of responsibility.
In legal terms jurisdiction can be defined as the limit of a judicial authority or the extent to which a court of law can exercise its authority over cases.
Simply put jurisdiction is when law or court or any legal authority can speak, more easy way to say is when court or any legal authority have a right or power to speak.
In law jurisdiction is different as per different act, but the basic jurisdiction of a court has to be decided in usually 3 types:
- Territorial
- Cause of action
- Pecuniary
But in PWDVA jurisdiction is defined under section 27, which clearly states that Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate I class, within local limits of:
- The person aggrieved permanently or temporarily resides or carries business or is employed;
- The respondent resides or carries on business or is employed; or
- The cause of action has arisen,
shall be the competent court to grant a protection order and other orders under this act and to try offences under this act.
Explaining this further, court has the power to pass any order or to act on the complaint of any person where;
Aggrieved person or victim i.e women who faced any type of domestic violence, lives temporarily or permanently or carries business or is employed.
Firstly, Carries business or employed means when aggrieved person was subject to domestic violence, she can go to the concerned police station or protection officer of the area she was presently working or carrying on any type of her business further, she escaped from domestic violence and took shelter somewhere else and started working at that place that area will also be included in this.
Secondly, aggrieved person resides permanently means, in general it means a person who owns the house that address will be permanent, but in legal terms any Government issued photo ID Card is generally considered as the permanent address/residence of the person like passport and aadhar card.
Now, the temporarily residence is a bit contentious subject matter. In generic temporarily residence includes any place where aggrieved person has taken shelter, but many judgements had cleared clouds on this topic.
In Rabindra Nath Sahu & Anr. 2017, Orissa High Court has held that temporary residence includes a place where an aggrieved person was compelled to reside in view of commission of domestic violence, where she may not have decided to reside permanently or for a considerable length of time, but for the time being.
In another case of Ehsan Joshi vs. Suman 2018, Punjab and Haryana High Court held that after being subjected to domestic violence, it may not be possible for a woman to reside within the same jurisdiction as where the incident of domestic violence occurred and would shift and relocate to a place where she can reside/pick up a job or has some support, be it with her parents of near kith and kin.
Lastly, Cause of action arises this term has not been specifically defined in law but if we gaze in the earliest time and in most cases under our judicial system then the cause of action has been held to mean every fact which is material to entitle the aggrieved party to succeed every fact which the respondent/ opposite party would have a right to transverse.
CONCEPT OF JURISDICTION:
The idea of jurisdiction was brought to limit the power of judicial authority or any legal authority and to create a clear dissection between them so that one doesn’t over lap the work and area of working of the other authority. The concept was to protect the independence and sovereign of equality of judicial authority by balancing each judicial authority interest in exercising jurisdiction to advance its own guiding principle. Most importantly to harmonize the power and rights of two or more judicial authority when they have concurrent jurisdiction, which is when each of them has jurisdiction over the same matter. Lastly, to protect individuals from unreasonable exercise of jurisdiction either by single or by two or more judicial authority seeking to impose conflicting or compounding obligation on the same matter.
WHERE, WHEN AND HOW DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COMPLAINTS ARE TO BE FILED:
A victim of domestic violence must have access to the courts at all times. Law enforcement, Municipal and Superior Court staff must be advised that victims should never be turned away because of the inconvenience of arranging off-hours emergency relief. A law enforcement officer responding to a domestic violence call must provide the victim with necessary assistance to file either a criminal or civil Complaint. Under no circumstances should an officer prevent or discourage a victim from seeking immediate temporary relief merely because the domestic violence occurs after regular business hours.
Domestic violence cases are relatively high in India, and the mostly women who are subject matter of violence are either belongs from a bigot, jingoistic families or poor families or they are illiterate. Jurisdiction plays a vital role in the following procedure of domestic violence, mostly officers or any authoritative persons try to manipulate and mislead these victims of their families. May be this was the initial reason mostly victims never came upfront to lodge complaints against these gruesome people because they never had proper guidance tin this regard.
But with the help of PWDVA and initiations of government a lot of changes has been made in right directions and now victims and their families are given chance to come and fight against this crime without hesitation and manipulation, they will have equitable and detailed guidance from the protection officers appointed by the government under PWDVA in each district.
CONCLUSION:
Jurisdiction is used to keep harmony and balance between the courts as this gives a proper structure to judiciary to perform exceptionally well. Previously, the jurisdiction was limited but as the special acts are prevailing over the general so the idea of jurisdiction is widening as well. As per the different acts different jurisdiction is used. As we have seen in PWDVA, the victims of domestic violence are given special treatment and legal aid to help them in their distress times. A victim of domestic violence have full access to the courts she can go to any nearby police station and the staff of police or concerned PO will provide aid to the victim and guide her properly regarding whole procedure of domestic violence and law. Government had made sure that in PWDVA victims or her family without worrying about jurisdiction and harassment from the police officials and the suffering, fear of the victims of domestic violence has been ended. The concerned PO’s are appointed in each and every district and police station to support such victims or their families in the period of harrowing.
