Legislation to Practice: An Analysis of Domestic Violence Cases from Kerala’s Lower Courts

The regulation of an intimate family relationship to control and prevent violence against women in the domestic space is analysed as an instance of interference by the state to regulate and monitor a hitherto ‘private’ space. This article explores to what extent can the interference of law help suppressed women to use law as a tool to change situations of familial violence and thereby enhance their capacity to engage with the ‘male space’ of courtrooms? The ‘result’ from the whole legal and judicial process may not give a solution to the ‘violence’ they have undergone but the courtroom and client counselling experience reveals that it does provoke the woman to think in terms of emancipation. The everyday practice of domestic violence law in the lower courts of Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala has been analysed in this article.