Punjab woman’s fight against domestic abuse leads to landmark Canadian court ruling | Chandigarh News
In a landmark judgment that could significantly expand legal remedies for survivors of domestic abuse, the Supreme Court of Canada has recognised a new tort of intimate partner violence, holding that patterns of coercive control and abuse within relationships can constitute a distinct civil wrong. The ruling, delivered on May 15 in the case of Kuldeep Kaur Ahluwalia versus Amritpal Singh Ahluwalia, stems from a decade-long legal battle by a Punjab-born woman who said she endured years of abuse, isolation and coercive control after moving to Canada. In a 6-3 decision in Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia (2026 SCC 16), the court held that intimate partner violence encompasses more than physical assaults and includes sustained patterns of coercive and controlling behaviour that undermine a person’s dignity, autonomy and equality within a relationship. The judgment paves the way for victims to seek monetary damages for harms caused by such conduct. Kuldeep Kaur Ahluwalia married Amritpal Singh Ahluwalia in India in 1999 before the couple immigrated to Canada in the early 2000s. They later had two children. According to …
