Murders of married women are partially visible under categories such as “dowry deaths” in NCRB data, but murders of husbands are obscured, folded into broad, unspecific homicide data with no relational context.
Published Nov 14, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 14, 2025 | 8:00 AM
The hallmark of a fair and just justice delivery system is to remain gender neutral” and “creating a special class of leniency for one gender would erode the fundamental principles of justice in cases of life-threatening bodily offences.
Synopsis: The patriarchal stereotypes perpetuate the erroneous belief that men cannot suffer violence in domestic relationships. The Supreme Court’s judgment in Reena Rani v. State of Bihar case marks a significant move toward treating all victims, regardless of gender, equally under criminal law, reinforcing that serious bodily offences demand consistent accountability.
The recent analysis of the latest Crime in India Report, 2023, along with media and NGO reports between 2022 and 2025, suggests a discernible rise in domestic violence, encompassing both uxoricide (the killing of a wife by her husband) and mariticide (the killing of a husband by his wife).
Data compiled between 2022 to 2025 by independent research (Ekam Nyaay Foundation) and advocacy groups indicate that, on average, approximately 300 mariticide cases, often in collaboration with accomplices registered during this period.
Interestingly, this developing phenomenon of victimisation, though statistically low in number, does not disaggregate homicide data by victim-offender relationship in reports issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Instead, this data is officially recorded under the general “murder” category, leading to incidents of intimate partner homicide not being counted as domestic violence statistics in the Crime in India reports.
These alternative datasets highlight an unexplored dimension of male victimisation within intimate partner homicide. Recognising such patterns is critical for advancing a more comprehensive and gender inclusive understanding of domestic violence and gender-based harms, thereby moving beyond a unidirectional framing of victimhood in intimate relationships.
The NCRB logs motive (dowry, property, and “disputes”) but does not indicate the victim-offender relationship in the data on murder cases. Researchers, therefore, have to trawl vernacular dailies and RTI responses to know how many spouses were killed by their partners.
The result is a gendered blind spot, meaning murders of married women are partially visible under categories such as “dowry deaths”, but murders of husbands are obscured, folded into broad, unspecific homicide data with no relational context.
The same opacity hampers our understanding of non-fatal abuse. The annual report of the NCRB (Crime in India, 2023) indicates that a total of 1.1 lakh cases were registered under Section 498A of the IPC, i.e., “cruelty by husband or relatives,” accounting for nearly 31 percent of the 4.13 lakh cases reported against women in 2023. Yet it offers no mirror category.
According to the Crime in India Report 2023, a total of 29,405 murder cases were reported throughout the country. Most murder motives in the report are labelled as ‘Disputes,’ which included 9,962 cases, followed by ‘Personal Vendetta or Enmity’ (3,903 cases) and ‘Love Affairs’ (1,691 cases), as the most frequent murder motives.
The report lists 29 motives for murder; yet, it provides no disaggregation by victim–offender relationship or the gender of the accused. Furthermore, husbands murdered by their wives were not a separate category; instead, they were categorised under male adult victims. However, murder victims are classified by age group and gender (including transgender) at the state level.
The Delhi High Court (Jyoti alias Kittu v. State NCT of Delhi), Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma observed that “the hallmark of a fair and just justice delivery system is to remain gender neutral” and “creating a special class of leniency for one gender would erode the fundamental principles of justice in cases of life-threatening bodily offences.”
Otherwise, the patriarchal stereotypes perpetuate the erroneous belief that men cannot suffer violence in domestic relationships. The Supreme Court’s judgment in the Reena Rani v. State of Bihar case marks a significant move toward
Treating all victims, regardless of gender, equally under criminal law, reinforcing that serious bodily offences demand consistent accountability.
The apex court urged the Union government to maintain legislative sensitivity to the growing misuse of protective laws. Yet, the Supreme Court maintained the balance by affirming the constitutional validity of domestic law and gender-
specific protections (such as in 498A, dowry, and maintenance) unless Parliament determines otherwise.
To capture and analyse the emerging trend, the annual Crime in India Report by the NCRB, one must undergo several significant structural and methodological changes.
The following reforms would enhance data transparency, so that sociologists, victimologists, and gender policy experts can capture the trends and contribute to offering policy
equity.
Making domestic violence statutes gender inclusive without diluting protections for women under Section 498A, IPC, and retaining aggravated penalties for dowry would satisfy constitutional equality and empirical evidence. Updating both legislation and statistics, to acknowledge the power asymmetries, whether dowry or adultery, female or male perpetrator, will sharpen all gender prevention strategies.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
