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2025 Supreme(SC) 1148

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
B.V. Nagarathna, Satish Chandra Sharma, JJ.
We The Women Of India - Petitioner
Versus
Union Of India & Ors. - Respondents
Writ Petition(S) (Civil) No(S). 1156/2021
Decided On : 20-05-2025

Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Petitioner: Ms. Shobha Gupta, Sr. Adv., Mr. Anand Padmanabhan, Sr. Adv., Mr. Aditya Ranjan, AOR, Ms. Siny Sara Varghese, Adv., Ms. Yogamaya MG, Adv., Ms. Komal, Adv.
For the Respondent:Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASG, Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G., Ms. Chitrangda Rashtravara, Adv., Ms. Suhashini Sen, Adv., Ms. Rekha Pandey, Adv., Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, Adv., Mr. Sudarshan Lamba, AOR, Ms. Manisha Chava, Adv., Mr. Vaibhav Dwivedi, Adv., Ms. Shagun Thakur, Adv., Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G., Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Adv., Ms. Swarupama Chaturvedi, Adv., Ms. Chinmayee Chandra, Adv., Advitiya Awasthi, Adv., Mr. Ishaan Sharma, Adv., Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR, Mr. Sahil Bhalaik, AOR, Mr. Tushar Giri, Adv., Mr. Siddharth Anil Khanna, Adv., Mr. Ritik Arora, Adv., Mr. Shivam Mishra, Adv., Mr. Gowtham Polanki, Adv., Mr. Murshlin Ansari, Adv., Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR, Mr. Piyush Vyas, Adv., Ms. Purvat Wali, Adv., Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR, Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv., Ms. Ankita Sharma, AOR, Mr. Arjun D Singh, Adv., Mrs. Shirin Khajuria, Sr. Adv., Ms. Bhavana Duhoon, AOR, Ms. Swati Tiwari, Adv., Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR, Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, Adv., Ms. Abhipsa Mohanty, Adv., Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G., Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, AOR, Mr. Nikunj Gupta, Adv., Ms. Drishti Rawal, Adv., Ms. Pragya Upadhyay, Adv., Ms. Drishti Saraf, Adv., Ms. Aakanksha, Adv., Ms. Ishika Gupta, Adv., Mr. Sarthak Arya, Adv., Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR, Mr. Raghavendra M. Kulkarni, Adv., Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR, Mrs. Anu K Joy, Adv., Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv., Mr. Santhosh K, Adv., Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv., Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv., Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR, Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR, Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv., Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv., Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv., Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR, Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR, Mr. Prasenjeet Mohapatra, AOR, Mr. Rajat Rathee, Adv., Ms. Nupur Kumar, AOR, Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR, Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G., Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, Adv., Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR, Ms. Yashika Sharma, Adv., Mr. Aryan Srivastava, Adv., Ms. G. Indira, AOR, Mr. P Gandepan, Adv., Ms. Amrita, Adv., Ms. Anjali, Adv., Ms. Deepa Rathore, Adv., Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR, Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv., Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv., Mr. Manan Verma, AOR, Ms. Ishita Bist, Adv., Mr. Sumit Kumar, Adv., Mr. Shubham Arora, Adv., Mr. Ajay Kumar Misra, Advocate General, Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, AOR, Mr. Wrick Chatterjee, Adv., Mrs. Aditi Agarwal, Adv., Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR, Mr. Tanish Arora, Adv., Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee, A.S.G., Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR, Mrs. Suhasini Sen, Adv., Mrs. Rekha Pandey, Adv., Mrs. Swati Ghildiyal, Adv., Mr. Tanmay Mehta, Adv., Mr. Annirudh Sharma Ii, Adv., Mr. K. M. Nataraj, A.S.G., Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv., Mr. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv., Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv., Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv., Mr. Tadimalla Bhaskar Gowtham, Adv., Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Adv., Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv., Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv., Ms. Priyadarshni Priya, Adv., Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, Adv., Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv., Mr. Mukul Singh, Adv., Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Adv., Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv., Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR, Mr. Aravindh S., AOR, Ms. Jyoti P, Adv., Mr. Zoheb Hossain, AOR, Mr. Satya Mitra, AOR, Ms. Disha Singh, AOR, Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv., Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR, Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv., Mr. Andita Mukerjee, Adv., Ms. Swati Vishan, Adv., Ms. Manisha Chawla, Adv., Ms. Charanjeet Sidhu, Adv., Ms. Yamini Sharma, Adv., Ms. Supriya, Adv., Mrs. Ananda, AOR, Mr. Divyanshu Kumar Srivastava, AOR, Mr. Saurabh Pandey, Adv.

IMPORTANT POINT
Effective protection of constitutional rights of women – If an aggrieved person requests protection in a Shelter Home then she must get assistance through a Shelter Home – Medical facilities must be rendered as and when necessitated to an aggrieved woman including having access to a primary health centre or any other local medical health centre for medical treatment.

Headnote:
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 – Sections 6 to 11 – Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 – Section 12 – Effective protection of constitutional rights of women – If an aggrieved person requests protection in a Shelter Home then she must get assistance through a Shelter Home – Medical facilities must be rendered as and when necessitated to an aggrieved woman including having access to a primary health centre or any other local medical health centre for medical treatment – In case of necessity, women must have access to legal aid – States and Union Territories directed to identify officers in Department of Women and Child working at level of District and Taluka levels as Protection Officers and designate them as such – State and Union Territories directed to identify and notify Shelter Homes – Should any distressed women approach Member Secretary or any other officer of Legal Services Authority for seeking legal aid and advice, same would be provided expeditiously – Adequate and sufficient steps may be taken by Union of India for implementation of Section 11 of Act – Shelter Homes for Nari Niketan, One Stop Centres or any other homes for women must be accessible to victims/aggrieved women of domestic violence and steps have to be taken to ensure that such Homes are made available to distressed women – Respondent-State and Union Territories directed to identify and notify shelter homes for this purpose at District and Taluka levels. (Paras 11, 12, 14 and 17)
Facts of the case:
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 enacted two decades ago is an Act to provide for more effective protection of rights of women guaranteed under Constitution of India to those who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. This Act has been passed in furtherance of Article 15(3) of Constitution of India which provides for protection of women and children.
Findings of Court:
Directions have been issued as initial steps so as to ensure ultimate implementation of Act in all respect.
Result : Directions issued.

ORDER :

1. Learned counsel for the State of Arunachal Pradesh submitted that the said State was impleaded subsequent to the order imposing costs of Rs.5,000/-. Hence, an application seeking waiver of the costs is being filed during the course of the day.

2. Taking note of the said submission, the order for payment of costs of Rs.5000/- is set-aside with regard to the State of Arunachal Pradesh.

3. We have heard learned senior counsel for the petitioner and learned ASG for Union of India and learned counsel for National Legal Services Authority (for short “NALSA”) and all learned standing counsel for the respective States and Union Territories who are present.

4. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 enacted two decades ago is an Act to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution of India to those who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. This Act has been passed in furtherance of Article 15(3) of the Constitution of India which provides inter alia for protection of women and children.

5. Learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that this Court has entertained this Writ Petition in the year 2021 and has passed several directions from time to time. However, there is need to focus on certain aspects of the Act.

6. In this regard she has highlighted that there is need for appointment of protection officers under Section 8 of the Act. Section 8 of the Act reads as under:

“8. Appointment of Protection Officers.—

(1) The State Government shall, by notification, appoint such number of Protection Officers in each district as it may consider necessary and shall also notify the area or areas within which a Protection Officer shall exercise the powers and perform the duties conferred on him by or under this Act.

2) The Protection Officers shall as far as possible be women and shall possess such qualifications and experience as may be prescribed.

3) The terms and conditions of service of the Protection Officer and the other officers subordinate to him shall be such as may be prescribed.”

7. Section 9 delineates the duties and functions of Protection Officers. She, therefore, submitted that dedicated Protection Officers have to be appointed by the States/Union Territories for rendering effective services to women who are victims of domestic violence. However, till such time such dedicated officers are appointed, there is an absolute necessity for designating certain officers at the Taluka and District level for rendering services as Protection Officers to victims of domestic violence. She submitted that the casting of responsibilities on officers who are involved in ICDS work or who are Anganwadi workers would not be of much assistance. Therefore, she sought a direction that the States and Union Territories may designate certain officers who are working in the Department of Women and Child at Districts and Taluka levels to be also designated as Protection Officers under Section 8 of the Act.

8. Learned senior counsel next submitted that Section 10 speaks of service providers. For ease of reference Section 10 is extracted as under:

“10. Service providers.—

(1) Subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf, any voluntary association registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860) or a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956) or any other law for the time being in force with the objective of protecting the rights and interests of women by any lawful means including providing of legal aid, medical, financial or other assistance shall register itself with the State Government as a service provider for the purposes of this Act.

(2) A service provider registered under sub-section (1) shall have the power to—

(a) record the domestic incident report in the prescribed form if the aggrieved person so desires and forward a copy thereof to the Magistr

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2025 Supreme(SC) 1148

SUPREME COURT OF INDIAB.V. Nagarathna, Satish Chandra Sharma, JJ.We The Women Of India - PetitionerVersusUnion Of India & Ors. - RespondentsWrit Petition(S) (Civil) No(S). 1156/2021Decided On : 20-05-2025

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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
B.V. Nagarathna, Satish Chandra Sharma, JJ.
We The Women Of India - Petitioner
Versus
Union Of India & Ors. - Respondents
Writ Petition(S) (Civil) No(S). 1156/2021
Decided On : 20-05-2025