‘Redefining Victimhood’: The Overlooked and Invisible Victims of India’s Domestic Violence Act

The legal architecture addressing domestic violence in India, particularly addressing the women in 2005 made a law which is inherently gender-specific, conceptualizing domestic abuse as mainly a MALE TO A FEMALE phenomenon. While this gender biased included sociological perspective gives us a reality which necessitated such gender protections, on a legal invisibility on groups other than women such as male, transgender, and non-binary victims. Let’s also not forget women as Perpetrators of crime associated under this. They have always been regarded as a victim, but what happens aftermath the domestic violence is also dangerous to think of as the trauma behaviour gives rise to a criminality which is born from the gender specific rules of the legal system of the country. Through a complete doctrinal analysis this paper focuses on the troubles of the present system and focuses on gender specific domestic violence completely ignoring that the word ‘domestic’ may include anybody from the sphere of household relationships, if interpreted widely. If compared to international practices, Domestic Abuse Act,2021 (UK) reconceptualizes domestic violence as not a gender specific crime anymore, but an abuse of power within intimation or familial relationships.