Tactics Women Opt to Get A Divorce

1. Tactics Women Opt to Get A Divorce Case 1 Varhsa and Sachin had been married for six years and were parents to a two-year-old boy. One evening Sachin found police standing on his doorstep. He was shocked when he was marched off to the police station for assaulting his wife Varsha. Sachin thought it was a misunderstanding till he saw Varsha and her family at the police station. He was booked under domestic violence. A few days later, he was served a notice for divorce from the local court. Harassed and his reputation ruined, Sachin agreed to divorce Varsha. He never knew what went wrong and today he meets his son once a month at court. Case 2 Manmeet Singh and Harvinder Kaur had a happy marriage. On Saturday, they were to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. Harvinder left the house with their twin daughters that morning for a shopping trip to the nearby mall. Manmeet returned home that evening and sat through the night waiting for his family. Frantic, he ran to the local police station for help. The next morning he discovered his wife was staying with her parents. She wanted a divorce. Shocked when he refused, he was slapped with a domestic violence case and soon allegations of dowry also surfaced at the Crime Against Women's Cell (CAW). Fearing arrest, Manmeet gave into his wife's demands for a divorce, alimony and lost all his life savings. The end of every relationship usually rooted in anger, hurt and pain. The above case studies present an alarming trend where women are misusing law to get a speedier divorce. The reasons could be multifold: from infidelity from one or both sides, incompatible marriage, chinks in the joint family, disagreements over minor issues etc. At least 65 to 70 percent cases of domestic violence and dowry harassment vanish in thin air, once a monetary settlement is reached and a quick divorce is granted. The dowry law, Section 498-A IPC is essentially a cognizable and non-bailable criminal offence. Many women take this route to create a pressure on their husbands and in-laws and eventually get them to buckle under their demands. According Hridaya, a Men's Rights Organization member Amit Gupta over 63,000 men committed suicide in 2012 alone owing to domestic problems at home. Sadly, it is the middle class that has to bear the brunt of fake dowry cases as they are forced to cough up their life savings to prevent an imminent arrest and the fear of a besmirched reputation. For the rich, it's a much easier process. More often, money becomes a huge issue for many women. For example 32 year old Nina walked out on her husband Pavit when he refused to shell out more money for her personal expenses. His refusal to transfer the family property in Nina's name was the final nail in the coffin. She walked out on Pavit and immediately filed a domestic violence case against him. After several rounds of meeting between lawyers of both sides, Nina settled for a hefty alimony and half the share in the property. But Pavit is yet to recover from the impact of this ordeal as he was debt ridden to cough up a one-time alimony for his ex-wife.

2. Last year, the Supreme Court had asked states to set up a family welfare committee in each district to address false cases filed by women. It observed, "At the time of filing of the complaint, implications and consequences are not visualized. At times, such complaints lead to uncalled for harassment not only to the accused but also to the complainant." It added that the committee must speak to all parties involved in a harassment case because "uncalled for arrest may ruin the chances of settlement". Given these situations, Lawclik feels there is an urgent need of legal advice for individuals to make some changes. These are some proposed actions: Anytime a woman files a DV or dowry case, there should be a system in place to assess the validity and gravity of her accusations. Men should be considered innocent unless proven guilty. Develop mechanisms and skill centres to rehabilitate separated and divorced women to make them financially independent.