A legal study on innocent masculinity falling prey to women centric domestic abuse laws

Abstract

Men and women are pillars of the society and no society can make any progress without their equal participation in all the spheres of life. Men and women both are individuals and deserve respect. We should eliminate any kind of the contemplations and contrasts between them. It’s not that only women and not men should be respected. Respect the person and not the Gender. Respect is not based on their quality of character, not in their religion or not in their gender it’s all the self-respect of an individual which decides his/her position in the society. When we talk about gender neutral laws, it is true that the framers, at the time of making constitution, envisaged a scenario that was detrimental for women if not prevented and hence forth, they inserted the clause of protective discrimination via Article 15(3) under Constitution of India for making laws for the benefit of feeble women whose conditions were deplorable1. “When people undo, resist or challenge cultural notions of gender, those acts promote change”2. This notion has indeed worked upon in case of females. Lawmakers have indeed made various provisions as well as special acts like Domestic Violence Act (2005) to prevent such unethical practices. Despite this, a number of provisions were also welcomed on the resolution book, in the last few decades, to address the worries of liberty, equal respect as well as dignity for women, founded on the societal perception that, the women suffered violence owing to various social and cultural factors. Significant discussions and influences have prompted these establishments. The inclusion of sec. 498A IPC, was one such move and it punishes hostility of any kind by husband and his relatives on wife and her relatives. The arrangement, along with unified arrangements in Cr.P.C. are so planned as to bestow, a component of prevention. In course of time, a spate of reports of abuse of the segment through bogus/misrepresented charges and ramifications of a few family members of the spouse have been pouring in3 and again the other gender problems were overlooked, especially the question as to what if husbands be the victims of such hostility by their in-laws?