Domestic violence against women in India has increasingly been recognised as a serious legal and social concern, particularly following the enactment of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. While the legislation is widely regarded as progressive in scope, its practical impact remains uneven and often limited. This paper argues that the gap between legal promise and lived protection cannot be explained solely through administrative inefficiency or resource constraints. Instead, it reflects deeper ethical and sociological failures embedded within institutional practices, cultural norms, and legal interpretation. Drawing on feminist legal theory, sociological analyses of power, and ethical frameworks of justice and responsibility, this study critically examines how domestic violence governance in India often produces an illusion of protection rather than substantive safety. The paper highlights how reconciliation bias, moral scrutiny of women, and fragmented institutional responsibility undermine the ethical foundations of domestic violence law. It concludes by arguing for a shift from formal legality to ethical governance, where women’s dignity, autonomy, and lived realities are central to legal and institutional responses.
Isaac et al. (Mon,) studied this question.