Question- Who will be called a victim of domestic violence and what rights does he have?

Answer -

To take full advantage of this law, it is necessary to understand who is the ‘aggrieved person’ or the victim. If you are a woman and someone (with whom you are in a domestic relationship) misbehaves with you, you are a victim or ‘aggrieved person’ under this Act. Since the purpose of this law is to protect women from abuse arising out of domestic kinship, it is also important to understand what domestic kinship or relationship is and how it can happen. ‘Household kinship’ means the relation between any two persons in which they either live together in a shared household or have lived in the past. This may include the following relations :
➤ Blood-borne relationships (like mother-son, father-daughter, brother-sister, etc.).
➤ Marriage related relations (such as husband-wife, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, family of widows or relations with other members of the widow’s family).
➤ Adoption / adoption relations (eg adopted daughter and father).

Relationships such as marriage (such as a live-in relationship that is a legally void marriage, for example if the husband has married a second time, or if the husband and wife are related by blood, etc. and the marriage is therefore void).
(To be covered by domestic kinship, it is not necessary for two persons to be presently residing in a common household; for example, if the husband has evicted the wife from his house, it will also be covered under a domestic kinship.)

Rights of the aggrieved person

The officers who are responsible for enforcing this act have certain duties under this law such as : when a police officer, protection officer, service provider or magistrate comes to know about the incident of domestic violence, if this happens, they have to inform the victim about the following rights :

The victim can apply for any relief under this law such as – protection order, pecuniary relief, temporary custody order of children, residence order or order of compensation.
➤ The victim can take the help of official service providers.
➤ The victim can contact the Protection Officer.
➤ The victim can seek free legal aid.
➤ The victim can also file a criminal petition under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), under which the defendant can be jailed for up to three years, requiring the victim to prove serious abuse.

In addition, state-directed shelter homes and hospitals have a responsibility to provide a safe place to live and medical assistance to all victims who approach them. The victim can contact them through the service provider or protection officer.

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