India, Sept. 20 -- It's another working day at judicial magistrate (first class) Shikha Chahal's court 507 at the Saket district courts in Delhi. C is talking about the unravelling of her marriage in February 2007 when her husband hit her for the first time, two days after the wedding. She still doesn't know why. "There was never a reason," she said about the subsequent beatings. "His sisters told him to 'keep me in line'. I guess that's why he would hit me."

The husband, more body-builder than the real estate agent he is, sat on a steel bench outside, waiting to be summoned. He used to drive a Mercedes. Now he claimed to have no money to pay for the maintenance of their two daughters. In the last hearing, the court had asked for three y...