Demand to Government to ROLL BACK Marriage Law (Amendment) Bill 2010

Subject: Demand to Government to ROLL BACK Marriage Law (Amendment) Bill 2010, which proposes to introduce a policy of “automatic property annexation” from men in the name of “No Fault Divorce”

The Marriage Law (Amendment) Bill, 2010 Bill proposes to introduce “Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage”, as a ground for divorce, in the Hindu Marriage Act. The most salient features of this bill are that spouses do not have to prove reasons like cruelty or adultery etc to get a divorce. Men and women can apply divorce citing Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage. The husband however cannot oppose the divorce, if filed by wife and would be forced to give his wife, half of husband’s residential property acquired before or after marriage. The Marriage Law (Amendment) Bill, 2010 Bill, is comparable to the infamous British “Doctrine of Lapse” as it proposes to introduce a policy of ‘automatic property annexation’, this time from Indian men under the innocent guise of “Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage”.

What will happen if?

1. Husband purchases a property just 6 months before marriage out of his hard-earned savings, and his marriage breaks and he loses half of the property. In that case the husband, his mother and his unmarried sisters will be doomed.
2. Men start fearing this law and stop buying real estate which adversely affects the economy of the country.
3. Husband has dependent parents and owns a single property and if 50% of that goes to wife post-divorce, how will the husband take care of his old parents and unmarried sisters? Is the concept of family restricted to only husband-wife in the Indian context?
4. What, if the family is a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) owning a single joint property? Will the wife get 50% of that? What about other sibling’s share in it?

In short, this amendment if passed will exponentially increase divorce rates of young people. To make the matters worse, men will still be made to pay maintenance to wives from their monthly income even after he is ripped off all his savings, assets and property. He will lose whatever left in running around courts paying lawyer fees. Ironically, this law will not help any poor woman and the planning commission’s women’s empowerment group wants Government to pay money to poor women, who get divorced due to this law!!

Save Family Foundation (SFF) and its partner NGOs have more than 30,000 members and they are the fronts of over 20 lakh men and women in India and NRIs, who are suffering from enactment of undemocratic badly drafted laws. SFF DEMANDS the government to ROLL BACK the Marriage Law (Amendment) Bill 2010. The bill is being “forced” under pressure to be made law “without” taking into consideration the public opinion or the recommendations of either the Men’s NGOs or even the Advisory committee.

The reasons why Save Family Foundation demands the Roll-back of these proposed amendments is for the following reasons:

1.      India does not need "No Fault Divorce" Law. This law is appropriate for Western Societies, not for Indian society. Rollback Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage Bill.

2.      If this "No Fault Divorce law" is passed, then it will rapidly increase divorces in India, because it will enrich women, who marry men having property/assets and divorce them soon after marriage. If a woman gets half of husband's owned property within a month of her marriage, then a large majority of marriages will break soon after honeymoon. Please note, according to this disgusting proposed law, husband's property will be divided whether purchased before or after marriage.

3.      The wife can claim 50% of the residential property of the husbands, unopposed, leaving the aged Hindu mother, father, unmarried sister of the husband in the lurch, irrespective of whether the property was acquired before or after the marriage. This Bill also preaches that it is more profitable to break a marriage early, as unlike in other civilized countries, in India, the duration of Hindu marriage will have no link to the wife’s share, as in any case, she can claim 50% of the property, even if the duration of marriage was only one month. 50% of any person’s property cannot be automatically annexed by the government just because two people cannot cohabit with each other and remain married.

4.      The wife can also claim, unopposed a major share of the husband’s other movable property too, whether acquired before or after the marriage, ignoring the basic fact that a Hindu Man, also has the duty to take care of his aged parents and unmarried sisters. Strangely this Bill preaches that, it would be more profitable for women to break their family, rather than staying in it, as the married lady who stays in marriage, will not get share of property of her husband. She would get the share ONLY if she breaks her family. Such Laws will increase in family disharmony, and corresponding increase in crime rate including spousal murders

Such women activists claim, that the wife should get that share, against which she had contributed, during the subsistence of marriage. However, these very women fail to justify, what is the contribution of a wife on the property of husband, which was acquired BEFORE the marriage?

5.      The Bill is being “forced” into becoming a law in an “unknown” haste keeping aside the Public View or Advises of the Advisory Committee or that of the recommendations of the Men’s NGOs.

6.      The proposed structure of the Bill is totally Anti-Husband, Anti Mother-Sister and Anti-Family.

7.      As, per the proposed bill, the husband CANNOT challenge the divorce petition filed by his wife, based on ground of grave financial hardship which is a gross violation against the principal of natural justice.

8.      Media reports also talk about division of ONLY Husband’s property being treated as Marital property. Public is failing to understand why is Wife’s Assets not part of Marital Property. The proposed bill does not cover the Assets made by a wife either before or during marriage. Women’s assets build happens more in personal use items like Gold / Jewellery etc. while Men invest more into the family assets like House / Car etc. So with the proposed bill, the one who thinks for complete family is being penalized while the assets built from family earning into personal items like gold / jewellery go untouched.

9.      Media’s reports on inclusion of the Moveable or Immoveable assets of the Husband irrespective of being bought / created during or before marriage are being forced into the division. This is spreading a wide-spread emergency panic into the hearts of Indian men who are now thinking of not getting married at all.

10.  The proposed bill leaves question of Custody of the Children un-answered leaving their future of Parenting in COMPLETE DARK.

11.  With the proposed bill, in name of use of Section 15(3) of the Constitution of India, Section 15(1) is under complete violation when it does not allow one gender (male) to contest his own case. The Bill curtails the fundamental Rights to Equality before Law as granted by Constitution to every Citizen.

“Doctrine of Lapse” act has already led to panic in the nation

·         Since the time the newspapers have been filled by the stories of automatic property annexation under the guise of Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage, panic calls from families have stated to flood in.  Young professionals, who have taken huge loans to buy property, are the hardest hit, if 50% of their property goes to wife during divorce that also purchased before marriage. Most of them are on a "Cancellation Spree" after the cabinet decision to give property of husbands to wives.

·         Lenders and Banks are also worried with sudden increase on their funded properties which are under home loan to married men as their loan amount will be at risk if the couple is going through divorce, directly affecting the GDP because of the increase in NPA and hence, the economy of our country.

This Bill is also against the principle of natural justice and is against the basis of Supreme Court Judgment of "Naveen Kohli Vs Neelu Kohli" which is the basis of Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage.  In that case the wife had filed 14 cases against husband. Husband also filed 3 cases one of which was adultery. Supreme Court saw that for last 10 years cases is going on & there is no chance that the husband & wife are going to live together & passed a divorce decree. If this present Bill becomes a law, then people like Naveen Kohli won’t get any justice even in Supreme Court as this law overrules the SC judgment saying if the wife objects, then the husband can’t get divorce, even under such circumstances.

Demands

·         Our foremost demand is for the government to immediately STOP AND REPEAL THE PROCESSING OF THIS PROPERTY ANNEXATION BILL. 

·         Save Family Foundation along with other NGOs are unanimously answering the public outrage and the fear of basic human rights of men, with a nation-wide protest against the Marriage Law (Amendment) Bill 2010 to put our demands to the government for immediate roll-back of this amendment bill.

To support our legitimate demands, Save Family Foundation and other allied NGOs are currently lobbying with the various MPs and have sent protest letters, to the Prime Minister, Law Minister and all other MPs highlighting our concerns. We are also sending letters to FICCI, AASOCHAM, various banks and real estate companies highlighting our concern. With this Press Conference, we would request our media friends to take our voice to the various authorities, so that appropriate justice is meted to the husband, wife, children and the family.

INDIA WILL BE PROTESTING AGAINST THIS BILL ON 18^th AUGUST 2012

Supported By:

1.                  Save Indian Family Foundation, Bangalore

2.                  Protect Indian Family(PIF), Mumbai

3.                  Gender Human Rights Society, Delhi

4.                  Mothers and Sisters Initiative (MASI), Delhi

5.                  “Pati Pariwar”-Kalyan Samiti, Lucknow

6.                  All India Forgotten Women, Hyderabad

7.                  Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting, Bangalore (CRISP)

8.                  Indian Family Foundation, Mumbai

9.                  Confidare Consultancy, Bangalore

10.              Men’s Rights Association(MRA), Pune

11.              All India Men’s Welfare Association(AIMWA)

12.              Mothers and Sisters of Husband Against Abuse of Law (MASHAAL)

13.              Centre for Men’s Rights, Bangalore

14.              Indian Social Welfare  And Activism Forum (INSAAF), USA

15.              Bhavya Foundation, Rae Barielly

16.              Hridaya-Nest of Family Harmony, Kolkata

17.              All India Mother’s-in Law Protection Forum

18.              National Family Harmony Society (NFHS), Bangalore