13 convicted in 2014 under Domestic Violence Act

Only 13 persons were convicted out of the 639 charge sheeted in 2014 under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told Rajya Sabha today.
However, Rijiju's remark that the data pertains to "civil" nature of crimes under the Act evoked strong reaction from Deputy Leader of Congress in the House Anand Sharma, who said violence is not civil but criminal.
As Congress members, particularly the women members took strong objection to the reply, Rjiju first tried to convince them about the reply and then told them "you give notice for further discussion".

This apparently infuriated some members including Kumari Selja of Congress, who said the use of such language by a minister is "highly objectionable" and was "improper".
When Chairman Hamid Ansari tried to pacify them by noting that the reply states that data collection of crimes under the Act only started in 2014, Selja said, "My point is not that. My point is the minister has used objectionable language when we rose (to speak)".
Sharma also registered his objection.

Ansari, however, tried to soothe the frayed tempers assuring them that he will examine whether something objectionable has been said and will take corrective steps.

Replying to a question on how many people were convicted for domestic violence after the 2005 Act came into force, Rijiju said that as per inputs provided by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), during 2014, a total of 13 persons have been convicted under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
He informed the House that the NCRB started collecting data on the Act only since 2014.
According to the reply, a total of 426 cases under the Act were registered in 2014 of which charge sheet was filed in 312 cases. Conviction happened in just nine (9) cases. Trial completed in 19.1 percent cases. Out of 693 persons arrested in these cases, 639 were charge sheeted. Only 13 were, however, convicted.

Members wanted to know why the conviction rate in these cases was so low to which the minister said that in many cases, the husband and wife compromise at a later stage and that the offences under the Act are of "civil" nature.
According to figures, the maximum number of five
convictions happened in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, where 53 cases were registered, while three convictions happened in Bihar where 112 cases were registered.
Two convictions each happened in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh where 140 and 66 cases were registered respectively.
The lone conviction among Union territories was reported from Delhi where seven cases were registered.

No case was registered in 13 states---including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachala Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and five UTs--Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu,, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
After the reply of the minister in Question Hour, Samajwadi Party member Javed Ali Khan raised the issue of misuse of the Act, a contention which was resented by women members vehemently but was supported by Vijay Goel of BJP.
Khan said that many fake cases are registered and there is misuse of the Domestic violence Act.
"Misuse does happen. I agree with what brother (SP member) has said," remarked Goel.

While admitting that this does happen, Union Minister Rijiju said that the government's focus is women safety and any dilution to it cannot be allowed.
"This is a very sensitive issue. Our focus is women security. This is also true that some times few provisions of any law can be misused. One cannot deny this. Many NGOs have also given reports of gross misuse of certain laws like the Anti Dowry Act. But we should work giving priority to women security.
In her supplementary Jharna Das Baidya (CPI-M) raised concern over the low conviction rate in such cases to which Rijiju said he has given figures only about offences under the particular Act under which most of the cases are of "civil" nature.

"If I give figures of total cases of crime against women, it will be huge. I am talking about the Act. You have to understand," he said.
Renuka Chaudhary (Congress) asked how can violence become a civil matter. Backing her, Anand Sharma said that it is the minister who has to understand.
"As a member, I have every right to object to a factually wrong answer," he said.
Rajni Patil (Congress) wondered whether this is statistics of some village or the entire nation as she talked about the widespread incidents of domestic violence.
As women members from Congress and some other parties expressed dissatisfaction with the minister's reply, Ansari rose to pacify them. He said if they read the answer they will see that there is a huge problem in the country.

"We have a societal problem, which cuts across all sections," he said and asked members to allow Question Hour to continue and have a full debate if they want to discuss the issue.