Trans Women and the Domestic Violence Act

On 30th October, the Supreme Court said yes to look into the question of whether a transgender woman who went through a sex-reassignment surgery may be termed as an "aggrieved person" while reading Section 2(a) of the Domestic Violence Act of 2005. 

In order to look into the question, Jusrice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Vikram permitted an appeal filed by the husband of a trans woman against the ruling of the Bombay High Court which said that an individual who has used his right to identify oneself as a woman can be considered as an aggrieved person under Section 2(a) of the Domestic Violence Act of 2005.

The case

The case centered around a trans woman and her male partner who got married to each other in July 2016. However,  the difference between the pair led the trans woman to file a plea under the Act of 2005, thereby seeking interim maintenance. 

After this, in 2019, the trial court instructed that a payment of Rs.12,000 shall be made to the trans woman every month. The husband appealed against the order of 2019, but the appeal was dismissed by the court. The husband then approached the Bombay High Court to seek relief. The petitioner-husband was of the view that the trans person did not actually fall within the definition of an "aggrieved person". He argued that a right like this has been proven to "women" in domestic relationships. Moreover, the husband claimed that as per Section 7 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019, no certificate was issued to her, and thus, she should not be seen as a woman under the Domestic Violence Act. 

Defining an aggrieved person 

Section 2(a) of the Domestic Violence Act of 2005 defines an "aggrieved person" as “any woman who is, or has been, in a domestic relationship with the respondent and who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the respondent”. 

As per Section 2(f) of the Domestic Violence Act, a "domestic relationship" is a relationship of two persons who are living or have at one point, lived together in a shared household if they are related to each other by marriage, consanguinity or via a relationship in nature of adoption, marriage, or are family members residing together as a joint family. 

The Act of 2005 was passed with the object of offering "more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution". The Act contains provisions for monetary relief which the respondent can pay to the aggrieved person upon the order of the Magistrate, in order “to meet the expenses incurred and the losses suffered by the aggrieved person as a result of the domestic violence.”
In the case mentioned above, a transwoman who underwent sex reassignment surgery in the year 2016 filed a plea for interim maintenance as per the DV Act, stating that the transwoman had converted the gender from to female from transgender, and thus, falls under the definition of "aggrieved person".

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