Protection Officers, Free Legal Aid: Supreme Court Issues Directions To States, UTs For Effective Implementation Of Domestic Violence Act

The Supreme Court has recently issued directions to all States and Union Territories to appoint Protection Officers, publicise the scheme of the Domestic Violence Act 2005, create shelter homes and legal aid for distressed women at the grassroots level. The bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice SC Sharma was hearing a plea by 'We The Women of India', a non-governmental organisation, for the effective implementation of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA).The bench issued a slew of directions such as (1) designation of protection officers under S.9 of the Act at District and Taluka Levels; (2) completion of the designation of such officers within 6 weeks where the process is not complete yet; (3) wide publicity of the Act's Provisions under S.11; (4) NALSA to direct Legal Services Authorities at all levels that distressed women under the Act are entitled to free legal aid; (5) District Level Authorities shall publicise the availability of legal aid to distressed women; (6) Departments must empanel service providers and ensure accessible shelter homes (Nari Niketan, one-stop centres, etc.) for victims of domestic violence within ten weeks.Notably, S.9 outlines the functions of Protection Officers, while S.11 enlists the duties of the Government towards promoting awareness about the Act. The Court issued the following directions : 1. We direct the States and Union Territories to identify officers in the Department of Women and Child working at the level of the District and Taluka levels as Protection Officers and designate them as such. It is needless to observe that on such designation the Protection Officers shall discharge their duties in terms of Section 9 of the Act.2. We direct the Chief Secretaries of States/Union Territories as well as the Secretaries, Department of Women and Child of the respective States and Union Territories to coordinate in this regard and ensure that the officers are designated as Protection Officers under the provisions of the Act. Such exercise shall be carried out within a period of six weeks from today wherever designation of the officers as protection officer has not taken place.3. The respondent-States and Union Territories shall take steps to discharge their duties under Section 11 of the Act by giving wide publicity through public media about the provisions of the Act for having an effective coordination between the services provided by various Ministries and Departments for the implementation of the Act and to ensure that the protocols of the various ministries concerned with the delivery of services to women under the Act are took in place.While we may issue further directions in this regard, we expect that having regard to the explicit provisions of Section 11, the State Government shall take all measures in delineated under the said provisions. 4. We also note that Section 11 also imposes duty on the Central Government and, therefore, we direct that adequate and sufficient steps may be taken by the Union of India for implementation of Section 11 of the Act which is extracted above5. We have noted that Section 9(d) of the Act read with Section 12 of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 entities a woman and particularly a distressed women who are aggrieved to legal aid. In view of this mandate, we direct the Member Secretary of NALSA to communicate to the Member Secretaries of the States/Union Territories, Legal Services Authorities, to in turn communicate to the Member Secretaries at the District level as well as the Taluka level to give wide publicity to the fact that an aggrieved women under the provisions of the Act is entitled to free legal aid and advise. 6. The Member Secretaries at the States, Districts and Talukas level may give adequate publicity to this aspect in the context of the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005. It goes without saying that should any distressed women approach the Member Secretary or any other officer of the Legal Services Authority for seeking legal aid and advice the same would be provided expeditiously since the Act envisages that every woman is entitled to free legal aid.7. The steps shall also be taken by the concerned departments to empanel the service providers as per Section 10 of the Act. Shelter homes for Nari Niketan, one stop centres or any other homes for women must be accessible to the victims/aggrieved women of domestic violence and therefore, steps have to be taken to ensure that such homes are made available to the distressed women. The respondent-State and Union Territories are directed to identify and notify shelter homes for this purpose at the District and Taluka levels within a period of ten weeks from todayCase Details : WE THE WOMEN OF INDIA v UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.,W.P.(C) No. 1156/2021Click Here To Read/Download Order

Protection Officers, Free Legal Aid: Supreme Court Issues Directions To States, UTs For Effective Implementation Of Domestic Violence Act

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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