Divorce
and Family disputes are at a raise in India and the problem is couples don’t want
to solve their problems but are willing to part away without giving a second
chance to their relationship. I once heard a comment “Love at First Sight and
Divorce at First Fight” which seems to be true these days. In the last couple of
years there are multiple instances where women are losing on the alimony claims
/ maintenance from husband post-divorce. Lawyers arguing and courts agreeing that
a well-qualified wife and capable to earn need not fall back on the husband to
claim maintenance and the trend seems to be increasingly alarming.
The
point of concern is the human angle, women are different than men in many ways,
although they are tough enough to face the challenges of time it is practically
impossible to simply rule in the favour of husband when the wife is not working
and carries no means of income at the time of divorce, first of all the plight
in India is women leave their parental home and virtually all relationship ties
are killed in the name of kanyadaan ceremony ( a ritual where the kanya (girl)
is donated in charity to husband) and the parents bid a good bye to the girl
stating now your husband’s home is your home, you will live and die there also
we are no more your parents you need to accept your husband’s parents as your
parents blah…blah…blah… and then the married women is subjected to various atrocities
which push them to seek divorce. The tradition, culture and social stigmas of
divorce haunt women more in than men, some cases the judgement in favor of husband have an aftermath making life of divorced women more miserable.
I
did some research and gathered statistics of unemployment rate in India that has
shot up to a five-year high of 5 per cent in 2015-16, with the figure
significantly higher at 8.7 per cent for women as compared to 4.3 per cent for
men, says a report by Labour Bureau. According
to the fifth annual employment-unemployment survey at all-India level, about 77
per cent of the households were reported to be having no regular wage/salaried
person. In rural sector,
unemployment rate is 5.1 per cent whereas in urban sector, the rate is 4.9 per
cent. The figure was significantly higher among females compared to males.
In
urban areas, female unemployment rate was estimated to be 12.1 per cent at
pan-India level compared to 3.3 per cent for males. The survey was conducted
across all states and union territories during April 2015 to December 2015. A
total sample of 1,56,563 households were covered in the survey – 88,783
households in the rural sector and 67,780 in the urban sector.
One
very important argument I wish to make to my readers is the importance of
siting the facts while filing the maintenance and divorce suits, not all cases
are ruled against women, but only those where certain key points are not
highlighted why the maintenance is being claimed. An example to quote from one
of the cases where the Mumbai Family Court rejected the claim was because the petitioner
contended that the respondent is a successful businessman and is doing business
not only in India but also in Dubai and other countries, and that his total
income per month is more than Rs. 15 lakhs, and therefore considering the
status of her husband, she prayed for grant of maintenance of INR 2 lakhs per
month. The Court relied on Mamta Jaiswal v. Rajesh Jaiswal, 24th
March 2000, a ruling by Madhya Pradesh high court, where it was held that “well
qualified wife is not entitled to remain as an idle and claim maintenance from
her husband”. Now such claims are bound
to be rejected… instead if certain facts be strengthened on the current
lifestyle of the wife cannot be maintained and her monthly expenses are way
beyond INR 2 Lakhs that include rent, home and household expenses, cost of
maids / domestic help, cook, driver, health expenses, commutations, loans, parents
illness, child and other commitments etc… so all boils down to how things are
represented.
I
wish to end this blog with a small story on the importance of communication with
an anecdote which goes like this
“A
blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a
sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few
coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and
dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote
some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the
new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money
to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see
how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked,
"Were
you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"
The
man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different
way."
I
wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."
Both
signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the
boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they
were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Life is something similar in the courts too… it all depends on how strong your arguments are and evidence is. If you enjoyed this post do comment, like and share, feel free to reach me at lawyersonia@gmail.com
Life is something similar in the courts too… it all depends on how strong your arguments are and evidence is. If you enjoyed this post do comment, like and share, feel free to reach me at lawyersonia@gmail.com