Domestic violence refers to violence or other abuse by one person against another in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. In India, one out of every fourth Indian women is a victim of domestic violence at some point of her life or the other. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005) has been passed under Indian Constitution which ensures protection of women against violence of any kind occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. On the face of it, the law appears to be a “shield” or blessing for Indian women who are into abusive or violent relationships. However, another disturbing fact is that at times, women themselves have played an unpleasant and catalytic role in perpetrating violence against another woman like daughter-in-law, mother-in-law or female domestic helps. Second issue is that if it's male dominated society in some parts of India it's also female dominated in few other parts of it. Thirdly, nowadays, males and females both are equally involved in different crimes in the country like theft, murder, abduction etc. In light of all these facts, it can be said that if in most instances domestic violence is perpetrated by man in some instances it can be vice versa too. Instances exist whereby protective legal provisions for the benefit of women have been subjected to distortion and misuse and women have used PWDVA as “weapon” to wreak petty revenge and to settle scores. Deep scrutiny of PWDVA projects that “it” in an attempt towards “women and children welfare”, has granted Indian women an unconditional legal supremacy over men and created a society where men are deprived of their rights of “welfare”. The bottom-line therefore, is the fair incantation of legal provisions and their objective and honest implementation. The responsibility of this lies on the shoulders of we educated and elite group of the society.

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Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and evaluate discovery layer search tools for retrieval of legal information in Indian law libraries. This paper covers current practices in legal information retrieval with special reference to Indian academic law libraries, and analyses its importance in the domain of law.Design/Methodology/Approach. A web survey and observational study method are used to collect the data. Data related to the discovery tools were collected using email and further discussion held with the discovery layer/ tool /product developers and their representatives.Findings. Results show that most of the Indian law libraries are subscribing to bundles of legal information resources such as Hein Online, JSTOR, LexisNexis Academic, Manupatra, Westlaw India, SCC web, AIR Online (CDROM), and so on. International legal and academic resources are compatible with discovery tools because they support various standards related to online publishing and dissemination such as OAI/PMH, Open URL, MARC21, and Z39.50, but Indian legal resources such as Manupatra, Air, and SCC are not compatible with the discovery layers. The central index is one of the important components in a discovery search interface, and discovery layer services/tools could be useful for Indian law libraries also if they can include multiple legal and academic resources in their central index. But present practices and observations reveal that discovery layers are not providing facility to cover legal information resources. Therefore, in the present form, discovery tools are not very useful; they are an incomplete and half solution for Indian libraries because all available Indian legal resources available in the law libraries are not covered.

In present era, virtual and real worlds have become profoundly interwoven and cyber-mediated communications have permanently altered the dynamics of every relationship. Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) makes communication process more progressive and dynamic enhancing emotional intimacy and commitment in relationships. But, at the same time they present various threats and abuse. It incites individuals into publicizing their personal lives [especially intimate matters]. This has led to conceptualization of various modes for perpetrating intimate partner violence or in simpler terms cyber partner abuse. This form of abuse involves practices such as stalking, spamming, posting intimate information to embarrass or humiliate the partner and so on. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the existing literature on cyber partner abuse. This review examines the characteristics and conceptualizations in the cyber partner abuse literature as well as the major topics the research has explored. This will help in early detection of such crimes and strengthening of support systems for victims through provision of direct services and policies.