Retrospective Operation of the PWDV Act contd..

In my earlier post, I proposed an argument that, being a remedial statute, the PWDV Act may be applied retrospectively. In this post, I propose an argument based on the wordings/language of the PWDV Act.

Though the inhibition against retrospective construction has been applied with less insistence in case of remedial statutes, there is no such rule that all benevolent measures are retrospective. ( G.P Singh, Interpretation of Statutes.) Thus, I present another argument in favour of the retrospective application of the Act.

The Supreme Court made an interesting observation in T.K. Lakshmana v. State of Madras, AIR 1968 SC 1489. It held that Section 44-B (2)(a)(i) Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1926, applies retrospectively because of the use of the words 'has made,' 'has failed,' 'has ceased,' 'has become,' as these words are capable of denoting events happening before or after coming into force of the statute.  Similarly, under the PWDV Act, it may be noted that Section 4, Section 18 and 19 also make use of such expressions.

Section 4 states, " any person who has reason to believe that an act of domestic violence has been, or is being, or is likely to be committed, may give information about it to the concerned Protection Officer."

Section 18 states, " The Magistrate... on being prima facie satisfied that domestic violence has taken place or is likely to take place, pass a protection order...."

In light of the aforementioned Judgment of the Supreme Court, it may be submitted that the use of expressions " has been committed" or "has taken place" used in respect of domestic violence, are capable of denoting an act of domestic violence committed both before or after coming into force of the Statute. Thus, having regards to the words of the Statute, its object and its nature, it may be concluded that the PWDV Act may be given retrospective application.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 6, 2010 at 10:29 AM

    Somehow, to me, this seems to be a better argument than the earlier one of the Act being a remedial statute.

    -Best
    Homi

    P.S The new theme's nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vijaya BhaskarSeptember 13, 2010 at 12:36 PM

    women and child department, hyderabad recently launched a website on protection of women from domestic violence act that site is www.pwdvhyd.ap.nic.in and providing more information about act and other related, it is very useful to victim of domestic violence.

    ReplyDelete

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