DEFINITION OF “DOMESTIC INCIDENT REPORT” UNDER PROTECTION OF WOMEN FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT, 2005

” Domestic Incident Report” under Section 2 (e) has been defined under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act as under:

(e)”domestic incident report” means a report made in the prescribed form on receipt of a complaint of domestic violence from an aggrieved person;

Domestic incident report is a form which captures details of the domestic violence incidences i.e. sexual violence, economic violence, verbal and emotional abuse, dowry related harassment, domestic violence upon children on the aggrieved person. It also captures details of orders and assistance, which an aggrieved person may seek from the magistrate. Domestic incident report assists the magistrate and other relevant authorities in determining interventions required for providing reliefs to the aggrieved person.

Under the Section 9 (1) (b) of the Act, the protection officer has to prepare a domestic incident report. Section 37 (2) (c) of the Act empowers the Central Government to make rules in respect of form and the manner in which a domestic incident report may be made under clause 1(b) of Section 9.

Rule 5 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Rules, 2006 provides procedure for preparation of domestic incident report. Rule 5 is reproduced as under:

(5) Domestic Incident Reports- (1) upon receipt of a Complaint of domestic violence, the Protection Officer shall prepare a domestic incident report in Form I and submit the same to the Magistrate and forward copies thereof to the Police Officer in charge of the Police Station within the local limits of jurisdiction of which the domestic violence alleged to have been committed has taken place and to the service providers in that area.

(2) Upon a request of any aggrieved person, a service provider may record a domestic incident report in Form I, and forward a copy thereof to the magistrate and protection officer having jurisdiction in the area where the domestic violence is alleged to have taken place.

As per Rule 5, when a protection officer receives a complaint, she has to prepare a domestic incident report in Form I and submit the same to the magistrate. The protection officer has also to send a copy of the same to the jurisdictional police station. A service provider can also prepare domestic incident report and submit it to the magistrate. The service provider may also send a copy of the same to the jurisdictional police station.

Submission of domestic incident report in Form I is only procedural in nature and this cannot be ground of dismissal of application by the magistrate. The Uttarakhand High Court in Baldev Raj Gagneja and Ors. vs. Smt. Neha Gagneja; Criminal Misc. Application No. 171 of 2009 has observed as under:

17. From the perusal of the provisions made under Section 12(1) read with Rule 5, 1 AM of the view that submission of the report in Form 1 is only procedural in nature. If Protection Officer fails to submit his report strictly as per Rule 5 in Form 1, then it is always open to the Magistrate to call for further report from the Protection Officer in the Form 1. However, in any event, Magistrate should not throw the application in dustbin only on the ground of non-compliance of the Rule 5 of the Act. If report is not submitted in Form 1 as provided under Rule 5, then claimant/aggrieved person would be deprived from justice for the fault of the Protection Officer, which cannot be said to be justified. Moreover, this is settled principle of law that technicalities should not come in the way of dispensing justice.

18. Meaning thereby purpose of report of the Protection Officer is to assist the Magistrate. Hence procedure error committed by the Protection Officer in submitting the report should not be made ground to reject the application moved under Section 12 before the Magistrate.

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