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Save the Family Foundation staged a protest in New Delhi on Sunday demanding gender neutrality in the Domestic Violence Act. The protest also claimed that the Act was "full of loopholes".
According to the NGO, its Act should be made more gender neutral so that it will not be misused.
Niladri Shekhar Das, secretary of the NGO, said: "The Domestic Violence Act is full of loopholes, because of which it is being increasingly misused by a lot of women. Efforts must be made that the law is just and gender neutral so that no one can take advantage of it".
"The Act assumes that women are always the victims. Hence they are not required to provide any proof for their claims. The sole testimony of the so-called aggrieved person is enough for the court to conclude that an offence has been committed. This is a baseless assumption that helps people misuse the law," Das told.
The NGO has submitted a petition to President Pratibha Patil asking the law to be amended. The NGO has also demanded that the child’s custody should be decided by the court after a fair hearing.
"Unless there is compelling evidence to believe that either one or both parents are harmful to the child's physical and emotional health and well-being, joint custody should be granted to the mother and the father. Also, if it's realised that a person has filed a false case under the Domestic Violence Act, they should be punished in order to discourage others from following suit," Das added.
