Representations on marraige Law Amendment

From, Date :-

To ,
Shri K.P. Singh, Director of Rajya Sabha Secreteriat, 201 Second floor , Parliament House Annexxe, New Delhi – 110001

Honnorable Smt Jayanthi Natarajan and members of the parliamentary committee,

I _______________________________ strongly oppose the proposed MARRIAGE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL in its current form . This Bill completely excludes the possibility that a woman can also be a cause of any sort of marital discord and financial hardship can also be faced by the husband. It just takes into consideration that irrespective of the fact on who is petitioning for the divorce, it the husband who is assumed to be one guilty of breaking the marriage and must be forced the satisfy the financial hardship condition of the wife.

Section 13D is unconstitutional and must be amended

Section 13D of the amendment has been copied from law commission’s recommendation in 1978, but it does not hold good in 2010 and must be suitability amended. Section 13D in the current form of the bill states the below

13D. (1) Where the wife is the respondent to a petition for the dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce under section 13C, she may oppose the grant of a decree on the ground that the dissolution of the marriage will result in grave financial hardship to her and that it would in all the circumstances be wrong to dissolve the marriage.

Adverse Repercussions of section 13D

This section would lead to widespread misuse of this Bill, as then the husband will be forced to ‘buy’ a divorce, while the wife can choose to walk out, at her whims and fancies. Moreover this section also completely excludes the possibility that the husband can also face financial hardship at the times of a divorce.

There are many families in India today where husbands have assumed responsibilities of the household and wives are the primary bread earners. This bill will discriminate against these husbands should their wives petition for divorce. Also in many households husbands become unemployed, ill, handicapped or infirm and should a wife choose to abandon and divorce a husband under these circumstances the husband would have no legal recourse to seek adequate compensation from the wife on the grounds of financial hardship.

The current concept of gender neutrality like that of Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act which takes into consideration that both, the husband and the wife can face financial hardship has been totally ignored in this Bill, specially in this section.

Section 13D must be amended to make it gender neutral

“13D. (1) The respondent to a petition for the dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce under section 13C, may oppose the grant of a decree on the ground that the dissolution of the marriage will result in grave financial hardship to them and that it would in all the circumstances be wrong to dissolve the marriage.”

The word Financial Hardship must be specifically defined

The word financial hardship must be defined because this will become a tool for extortion. It must be clearly specified as to what liabilities the petitioner of a divorce petition must fulfill to satisfy the “financial hardship” condition of the respondent before a divorce can be granted.

Child custody and visitation rights should also be decided while granting divorce

Child custody and visitation rights should also be decided before granting divorce, while deciding maintenance of the child under this Bill.

Condition of finishing all pending litigation before divorce is granted

The proposed law has been copied from the 71th report of the law commission published 1978. However laws like 498a and DV Act came into existence in 1983 and 2006, hence quashing of such cases against husband and his family were not in consideration at that time and the law commission never even considered the wide spread abuse of sections like 498a and DV as they happen today.

Unlike the west in India a divorce case is normally accompanied by many cases namely, maintenance child custody, 498a, adultery, domestic violence, IPC Sec 506 and many more. Most of the times multiple maintenance cases , 498a and DV are all filed together to harass the husbands and his family members and to extort money through nefarious means. In cases where the wife is petitioner for divorce and where she may also be guilty of adultery, or crime against the husband and his family or misuses the other gender biased legislations like 498a and DV, she can easily choose to just walk away from the divorce without having to satisfy any conditions whatsoever. In other words the husband will have absolutely no defence and will be stuck with court cases running for years on end while the wife can happily get the divorce as she likes.

In the case of Swati Verma vs. Rajan Verma reported in (2004) 1 SCC 123 the honourable Supreme Court of India was cognizant of the same concern when it averred. “ Having perused the records placed before us we are satisfied that the marriage between the parties has broken down irretrievably and with a view to restore good relationship and to put a quietus to all litigations between the parties and not to leave any room for future litigation, so that they may live peacefully hereafter…”

In the case of Naveen Kohli vs. Neelu Kohli (AIR 2006 SC 1675), the Hon’ble Supreme Court recommended to the Union of India to seriously consider bringing an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 to incorporate irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce. The essence of the above case was large number of criminal cases were pending against each other. So in essence if either party initiates criminal cases against each other then it should be considered an ground for divorce.

If the current law comes into being in the present format, this will lead to the wife walking out with the divorce while the husband will still be stuck in a legal tangle of cases for many decades.

Amendment to finish all litigation before granting divorce

I demand that an amendment will be inserted that decree of divorce be granted only when all litigation including but not limited to child custody between the husband and the wife has been resolved to the satisfaction of either of the parties, with the post condition that no party will initiate any other litigation against each other once the divorce decree has been granted. This will not only allow either allow the parties to separate and start their lives peacefully , but will also allow the reduction of the tremendous judicial burden of false and frivolous litigation that is pending in the Indian courts .

Thanks,

Your’s truly

“Life Isnt About Finding Yourself…
Life is about Creating Yourself…”

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Thanks n regards

Misogynit