'Battered wives must get house'

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October 31, 2004 17:19 IST

In cases of domestic violence the victim should be first given the right to possession of the house of her spouse to ensure protection for her, family court judge Roshan Dalvi has said.

"It will solve most of the cases," she said in her address at a consultation meet on proposed law on domestic violence held in Mumbai on Saturday.

The judge said that in most domestic violence cases, the victims are thrown out of their homes. She cited instances of United Kingdom and Canada where such victims get special suites in such cases.

"We don't have such infrastructural facility but we can atleast help them have a place to live," Dalvi said. Noted advocate and human rights activist Indira Jaising, speaking on the occasion, said the judges in family courts should be sensitised towards the cases of domestic violence.

Jaising, while addressing the inaugural session, said that the judges should treat matters of domestic violence as an emergency. "It (domestic violence) is an indication of emergency and is not a litigation that can wait. It means that an action is awaited," she said while adding that delay could lead to loss of life of the victims.

Ammu Abraham from Women's Centre also spoke during the session and said that in many cases the parents of the girl were also responsible for her sufferings.

"They (family) force them to go back to the houses of their husbands and ask them to adjust there," she said, stating that even parents were to blame for some of the deaths.

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