To,
The Honorable
Sub :-. Strong Protest against the proposed MARRIAGE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL and the severe after effects that this hasty provision will have on masses.
Honorable Sir,
The young men of India demand justice from a young male leader like yourself. What looks as a convenient way to dispose of the ongoing marital disputes in the country, which is seeing a splurge in divorce cases being filed, contains a few very dangerous provisions whose ramifications can be far-reaching and taxing for the society. This representation from me is to register a strong protest against certain section of the marriage law amendment bill which according to has got some sections which are Anti Husband and will once again expose only the husband to the whims and fancies of his wife’s decision and lead to this law being misused in collusion with the other gender laws of India like section 498a and the DV act.
The Indian citizen wants to know why the government of Indian bends over backwards to appease some radical women’s groups and creates or approves laws which are totally unconstitutional in nature as it does not respect Articles 14, 20, 21 and 22 of the Indian Constitution when it comes to married men. Married men are being offered a very raw deal in the bill as their constitutional rights of equality before law and a fair and free trial are being thoroughly jeopardized.
Government backed abuse against Indian husbands at the behest of some women’s organizations
- This bill seeks to usurp at least 50% of the property owned by the husband at the time of divorce.
- This bill also stands to deny husbands the chance to oppose a petition of divorce filed by wife under this law, whereas an equivalent power wrests with the wife.
- This bill does not guarantee unlimited access of a man towards his children.
- This bill does not provide even a semblance of immunity to a man from other legal provisions surrounding marriage i.e. it does not bar a wife from filing a case of cruelty against the husband under section 498A / Domestic Violence against the husband while she seeks to obtain a decree of no-fault divorce.
- This bill can literally render a man bankrupt as he will first be extorted by the police under a false case of 498A IPC, then the wife will file a case under the Domestic Violence Act and seek maintenance, custody of children and right to residence, then again she can still go ahead and file a case under Section 125 CrPC to seek additional no-fault maintenance and after all this she
will still be guaranteed ownership of at least 50% of husband’s property or an amount equivalent to it.
- The extremely anti-male nature of the Indian judiciary puts the Indian men at a position far precarious than one’s imagination as the judges, who are highly insensitive towards men, will first give away at least 50% of the husband’s property to wife and then slap additional maintenance, alimony and child support burdens onto the husband.
- In such a case a man will go bankrupt honoring court orders and paying litigation fees and he will lose his property as well.
- SIFF predicts that such a treatment accorded to men in marriages, for no fault of theirs, and such victimization of men may lead to rise in crime in the society.
India committing the same mistake that China corrected !
Alarmed by the extremely skyrocketing divorce rate and family destruction on account of property law the Chinese Supreme Court very recently ruled that from now on, the person who buys the family home, or the parents who advance them the money, will get to keep it after divorce. In particular, more than a third of all marriages in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou now end in divorce, and the fastest-growing segment of society is those aged 25 to 34. Almost half of all divorces see a court squabble over the family assets. “I would choose a luxury house over a boyfriend that always makes me happy without hesitation,” said one 24-year-old contestant on If You Are the One, one of China’s most popular television dating shows. “And my boyfriend has to have a monthly salary of 200,000 yuan (£18,900),” she demanded. China and Indian have the same sort of demographics and people of both China and India suffer from the same level of hypermaterialism. In such circumstances the introduction of property distribution laws based on senseless feminist pressure would lead to a severe disruption in the society and family system.
The question of 50% property – Western law coupled with Indian Feminist Fanaticism is a recipe for disaster.
American laws are now being blindly copied in India. Without noting the below facts
- Marriage and family as an institution has completely failed in west on account of these laws and less.
- Less than 12% people have stated that they would be interested in marriage and over 50% of these marriage end in a divorce.
- 3 in 5 children are fatherless .
- 1 in 3 Americans(110 million people) carry sexually transmitted disease.( Center for disease control data) [1]
With a such pathetic state of affairs in the west , India is trying to blindly import such laws at the insistence of a few radical women’s organizations Do we want to destroy the Indian family system has served us so well for 10,000 years? The western world does not have over 6 Maintenance laws
like India does and neither does the west witness severe misuse of laws like 498a in India which has been called as “Legal Terrorism” by the honourable supreme court of India. However it is surprising to note that instead of curbing the misuse in the other matrimonial laws the
government has for reasons knows nest to it has approved the formation of a new one, this one more draconian than the other. Indian Gender laws in particular are so badly drafted that they out rightly excludes even the possibility of a woman being the cause of any sort of marital discord. 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. Just like a wife a husband also has every right to break out of an abusive relationship. With no legal recourse for domestic violence(DV) or marital harassment(498a) like available for wives the only tool available for Indian husbands to stay separate from abusive wives and to petition for a divorce to end the domestic harassment. However divorce is made painfully expensive for Indian husbands trying to break free from abusive wives and this law is another step in that direction.
Nobody except some feminist organizations feel that the law justified
Barring a handful of feminists groups speaking in favor of the law, we would want to quote from media reports some of comments from a wide cross section of the society. The comments reflect the shock expressed by the nation on this proposed amendment to award 50% of only the husbands property the wife. The media articles are attached as Annexure 1 and Annexure 2.
a. “The wealthy or high net worth individuals can be a target. We all know women are not the only victims in marriages these days. I have handled gold-diggers myself”…This is absurd!” – Mrinalini Deshmukh ( Eminent Lawyer)
b. “A law cannot be lopsided, favouring one side over the other — the legislation has to be fair and square to all sides. Otherwise it would be ultra vires of the Constitution!”- Mrinalini Deshmukh ( Eminent Lawyer)
c. “The proposed law is already instilling a fear pyschosis in men,” Siddharth Shah, a divorce lawyer in Mumbai.
d. “This is a bad legislation,” Atindra Kumar Mukherjee, a senior divorce lawyer in Calcutta, stressing that there’s ample scope for abuse it were to come into force.
e.”Hindu Marriage Law Amendment Bill is anti-men, will destroy Indian families” – ehitavada paper Nagpur
f. “Every year, over 62,000 married men commit suicide due to verbal, emotional, economic, and physical abuse and legal harassment. The suicide rate of married men is double that of married women. One married man is committing suicide in every nine minutes.” – Indian Express Bangalore
Demands
I demand that this law must not be passed in haste under insistence and illegal pressure from few women’s groups . A Large national debate be held for this law to gather opinions from all sections of society and religion. Until then the law must be rolled back. Below are the amendments that I demand as a citizen .
Funds advanced for property marriage should be prime consideration/ Sharing liabilities must also be norm
The law must be GENDER NEUTRAL to begin with equal rights to a man and woman for opposing a divorce. In a marriage funds advanced by the husband or wife should be the prime consideration on deciding the rights given on the property acquired. In case the funds are advanced by third party then the written or unwritten views of the third party have to be taken. It should however be presumed that funds advanced by husbands relatives would be planned for husband and funds advanced wive’s
relatives should be treated as given for the wife unless the third party negates this . Any Gift given by husband and his family to wife should be taken or transferred back to husband and vice versa in whatever condition with any maintenance or cost of transfer to be on the person who has takes back the gift. Inherited property should be treated as separate property and should not be handed over to spouse. Taking into consideration the wife should have the right to seek division into her ancestral property ( not inheritable ) from her father and mother and seek divorce.
The liabilities should belong to the person who has taken the liabilities and not of the spouse except in case it be proven that the liabilities are taken for the spouse. If a husband takes a loan for the wife’s father’s illness then the wife has to take over that remaining liabilities and vice-versa.
Prenuptial agreements/ post nuptial agreement must be legalized so that no party may profit from a marriage.
Daughters must be given 50% of paternal and maternal property at time of marriage or when she is 18 years of age
Empowerment of women must not wait till her divorce .Every daughter must automatically get 50% of her fathers and mothers property so that all women in India get empowerment irrespective of the fact if they are married , divorced or choose to remain a spinster. This will also lead to non-burdening of husbands unnecessarily and will prevent the marriage from becoming a property transfer bureau
Condition of finishing all litigation before divorce is granted
While on one side we complain of judicial pendency , in India a divorce case is normally accompanied by at least 4 more cases namely, CrPC 125 , HMA 24 , Child custody, 498a, adultery, domestic violence, IPC Sec 506 and many more. Most of the times multiple maintenance cases , 498a and DV are filed together simply to harass the husbands and his family members and to extort money through nefarious means. 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. 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.
Conclusion
The social impact in India of the irretrievable-breakdown clause should be rigorously studied and watertight safeguards for both genders including children must be put in place before it is introduced. At a time when both men and women in India are increasingly financially independent, it is imperative that the terms of the “irretrievable breakdown” debate in India be expanded to restore a fair balance and the Adult’s rights of either gender. Lets do what’s right not what some women’s groups want
Thanks,