Law needed to deal with NRI marriages
ANIL MALHOTRA
ON DECEMBER 30, 2006, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs announced a scheme to provide free legal and counselling services to NRI women as well as foreign citizens of Indian origin in distress as a welfare measure. To begin with this scheme will be applicable in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Gulf. This was followed by the publication of a guidance booklet titled "Marriage to overseas Indians."
Now, there is another proposal as reportedly discussed on January 31 between the Overseas Affairs Minister and the Minister for Women and Child Development. According to this, the Indian government may soon decide to stamp the marital status of Non Resident Indians on their passports. This is indeed a welcome development. But is it enough?
Of a population of over one billion Indians, 25 million are NRIs. Times have changed but family laws for NRIs haven't. The result is an influx of problems arising out of NRI marriages with no practical solutions in the enactments as they exist today.
To compound the problem, registration of marriages has not been made compulsory in India. The result is multiple marriages by NRIs often without a previous divorce, invariably by duping the previous spouse. Foreign divorce decrees are not accepted by Indian courts. Defending a matrimonial matter abroad sitting in India is an impossible task.
Legal recourse in India is difficult, time consuming, expensive and complicated. Though the Family Courts Act came into existence in 1984, most States have no such courts. The result is that about 25,000 abandoned women in Punjab alone are fending for themselves in an uphill legal system.
Then there are issues relating to inter-parental child abduction. There is practically no law on the subject. Still further, inter country adoptions are governed by a maze of laws and procedures. How are all these family related issues to be resolved?
The gravity of one such problem is projected in an authoritative pronouncement by a bench of the Delhi High Court, then headed by Justice Vijender Jain: "This is one of those classic cases where Indian citizens who go abroad and marry Indian women and thereafter maltreat such women and inflict cruelty and dump them in alien and hostile environment without even bothering to give adequate maintenance. Such persons take advantage of the fact that they are outside the jurisdiction of the courts of India and most of the time, battered married women do not have resources to fight back and bring the culprits to face the consequences of their wrong doings.
"To deal with such kind of cases and to counter the mischief of such people ... stern action should be taken at every level ... Therefore, in this regard, the duty is cast on the state that such persons ... [are] to be served with the notices and the orders passed by the court through the embassies and High Commissions of India in those countries so as to bring them under the jurisdiction of the courts to enforce the liabilities fastened on them under India laws and to make them comply with the orders... "
In our country where we have a plural system of family laws and no compulsory registration of marriages, multiple bigamous unions by NRIs abound.
In this backdrop, there is a need to enact a comprehensive law to provide a wholesome answer to these issues.
anilmalhotra1960@gmail.com
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