Rathore, Madhhlika and Tribhuvan, Prasenjeet
The ‘misuse’ of domestic violence law: A court ethnography - Economic & Political Weekly - 61(21), May 23, 2026: p.10-12
In recent years, a few cases of domestic violence in India have drawn the media’s attention to the alleged misuse of these laws by women. Specifically, these incidents that involved suicides by husbands attributed harassment by wives and their families by weaponising the anti-domestic violence laws (Pandey 2024; TOI 2025a, 2025b). Every such incident is followed by a keen interest and action from actors of the legal fraternity, news media, anti-feminist movement crusaders and men’s rights activists. The ecosystem spawned by these movements has generated, with some success, a discourse that demonises both the feminist movement and the laws that protect women from domestic violence. The influence of this discourse, which in itself is rooted in patriarchal cultural norms (Nigam 2022), has even painted perceptions of the judges, as is evident from the language used in some of their judgments, which vilify women “misusing” anti-domestic violence laws as opportunists, “wolves,” and terming the misuse as “legal terrorism” (Singh 2021: 194). In effect, the law that was specifically constituted to protect women from harassment and violence has been repeatedly questioned, and numerous, powerful voices have asked for a complete revocation of the law. – Reproduced
https://www.epw.in/journal/2026/21/law-and-society/misuse-domestic-violence-law.html
The ‘misuse’ of domestic violence law: A court ethnography - Economic & Political Weekly - 61(21), May 23, 2026: p.10-12
In recent years, a few cases of domestic violence in India have drawn the media’s attention to the alleged misuse of these laws by women. Specifically, these incidents that involved suicides by husbands attributed harassment by wives and their families by weaponising the anti-domestic violence laws (Pandey 2024; TOI 2025a, 2025b). Every such incident is followed by a keen interest and action from actors of the legal fraternity, news media, anti-feminist movement crusaders and men’s rights activists. The ecosystem spawned by these movements has generated, with some success, a discourse that demonises both the feminist movement and the laws that protect women from domestic violence. The influence of this discourse, which in itself is rooted in patriarchal cultural norms (Nigam 2022), has even painted perceptions of the judges, as is evident from the language used in some of their judgments, which vilify women “misusing” anti-domestic violence laws as opportunists, “wolves,” and terming the misuse as “legal terrorism” (Singh 2021: 194). In effect, the law that was specifically constituted to protect women from harassment and violence has been repeatedly questioned, and numerous, powerful voices have asked for a complete revocation of the law. – Reproduced
https://www.epw.in/journal/2026/21/law-and-society/misuse-domestic-violence-law.html