Reply of memmorandum against marriage ammanment law

Letter to Ministers - Marriage Laws(Amendment) Bill,2010

Subject: Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Reference:  Group of Ministers (GoM) regarding Official amendments to the Marriage
Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Respected Sir,

Reasons and negative consequences of passing this law are as follows:

1. Marriage forms the very foundation of Indian social system. Without the basis of the institution of marriage, a society cannot exist and will hence, have no civilization. The proposed Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 devastates the sacred foundation of a marriage. This Bill is against the principles of Natural Justice and is against the very tenants of justice system envisaged by Indian Constitution. The amendments which are against the principles of natural justice and the Indian Constitution are as under:-

a) Clause 13D: An irretrievable break-down of marriage concept that has been introduced in  clause 13C which states that if the marriage is broken down for over 3 years,then divorce may be granted. The divorce petition can be challenged in clause 13D only if the respondent is a 'Female'. This is a gender biased clause and prone to misuse as we have seen in the DV Act and section 498A of the IPC.

b) Clause 28B:  The 'Female' has been given sole right to oppose the decree of divorce. This is a gender biased clause and does not fit well with our gender neutral society.

c) Property Rights: The bill proposes to divide the ancestral and personal property of the  husband equally with the wife. This recommendation is against the constitution and promotes parasitism. Article 300A of the constitution read with the Supreme Court judgement 'Maneka Gandhi v/s Union of India', states that no person should be deprived from their property without offering a reasonable compensation. In the current provision, the state envisages to unjustly, unfairly and in an unreasonable manner deprive the husband of his property. Not even that the state also plans to legislates to deprive the family members of the husband viz. brother, father, grandfather of their property (ie ancestral property) who have 'No Bearing' to the matrimonial relation of the husband.

d) All laws should be gender neutral. It is requested to  replace the word “husband” with the word “spouse” in all laws related to marriage issues.

2. It is humbly requested before the state to rollback the above three amendments in the bill. The ideology of passing the bill was to remove any undue hardships of the ladies at the time of divorce. My humble submission is that ladies have various maintenance clauses in the Hindu Marriage Act and CrPC viz section 24 and 125 respectively. Further, they can apply for interim maintenance during the pendency of the divorce proceedings. Any further, clauses for unjust division of property will cause undue hardships on the husband and his entire family. We have seen how other gender biased laws such as IPC 498A and DV  Act have been highly misused by women  in the past and even the Supreme Court termed “IPC 498A” as legal terrorism.

3. In the newly proposed bill, a woman can get divorce easily and she will walk away with half of the husband’s property – including property earned before marriage, after marriage, inherited property and inheritable property. The money and assets earned by your family on hardwork may be lost to some women who have been married to your sons or grand-sons.  You will realize it only when you have to part with 50% of your property to the divorce initiated by your wives or daughters-in-law. Already many of our Ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are hit by the false and forged cases filed by their wives or daughters-in-law.

4. The newly proposed bill will encourage money motivated women prompted by their unscrupulous families to go for divorce at anytime and will destabilize the family systems in the country.

5. Even if a wife decides to go for divorce immediately after marriage, still she gets half of the husband’s property as no minimum time  is mentioned to make her eligible for husband’s or his parent’s property.

6. In India, the suicide rate of married men is higher than women due to marital problems and then created financial liabilities (Citation: National Crime Records Bureau).  This new law without vision and by not analysing the future implications will create a situation where divorcing men have no other choice other than to commit suicides.  This law will create ageing parents of husband/senior citizens lose their homes, making them depressed and even commit suicides.

7. In modern India, most of the ladies are able bodies, well educated and can maintain themselves. We have ladies like Smt.Indira Gandhi, Smt.Kalpana Chawla, Dr. Kiran Bedi, Smt. P.T. Usha etc, etc... Gender biased laws does not serve the purpose of promoting gender  neutrality. It has also been seen that in Class 10th and 12th Board exams, University Exams and Professional exams it is the ladies who have the highest qualifying marks and the highest pass percentages. Even, the current year's UPSC civil services exam topper was a lady.

8. The Government shall uphold the Indian constitution on Gender Equality for men and women. But this new law will cause negative reputation to India as a nation for having laws that are not based on equal civil rights for men and women. This is not good for future generations also.

9. Due to the above cited reasons, it is humbly requested to you not to promote 'Parasitism' by passing such laws which will have an effect of reducing the total output of the Indian economy and axing the very foundation of the family system and culture of India.



                                                                           Thanking you,



                                                                                                Yours  faithfully,
                                                                                                G Mohanan Pillai
                                                                                                General Secretary