Although during his re-election campaign in 1996, he touted his having signed DOMA into law in Southern states, President Clinton also changed his mind about the efficacy of DOMA. In 2009, he announced that he is now in favor of same-sex marriage and of repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. But, there will be some women out there who will definitely use this in negative way and i think law should be well equipped to handle such cases. Re: Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill 2010 Nish Nishant 30-Mar-12 4:33. THE MARRIAGE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2010. Further to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-first Year of the Republic of India as follows:— CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY. (1) This Act may be called the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 2010. Section 13D Amending of the Marriage Laws Amendment Bill, 2010 is gender neutral. There is a very severe and disturbing trend these days to create duplicate laws in the Gender area when existing laws serve the same purpose.
The Court on the ground that the marriage is void on any of the following grounds, that is to say- (a) one of the parties to the marriage had a husband or wife living at the time of the marriage; (b) the marriage was void under the provisions of the Marriage Act or any other laws relating to marriage. Bill To Make Marriage Laws More Women-Friendly Shelved. And organisations opposing the provisions of the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill. It was first introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2010.
Accordingly, the Act enumerates circumstances in which a marriage can be legally broken but does not explain what marriage means nor does it enumerate the responsibilities of a wife and husband towards themselves, each other, their children, both sides of the family or the society.
The most common grounds for divorce – cruelty, desertion, impotence, adultery etc. – are not only poorly defined, but are also difficult to prove. Nevertheless, given that a divorce cannot be initiated by a spouse in any other manner, he/she is forced to make a variety of allegations on his/her partner to justify divorce under any one or a combination of the above mentioned grounds for divorce.
Scores of cases are also filed by wives every year under Sections 498A of IPC, Domestic Violence Act, Dowry Prohibition Act, and related civil and criminal laws to strengthen their divorce cases, to alienate children from their biological fathers, and to extract huge amounts of money as alimony and maintenance from husbands.
Given that these grounds for divorce require the petitioner spouse to make the worst kind of allegations which only end up antagonizing his/her partner, it is not surprising that counter allegations follow and over time, even the slightest possibility of reconciliation is destroyed. Marriages which could otherwise have been saved break down irretrievably and end up in divorce. It is no wonder the Supreme Court of India observed that the Hindu Marriage Act has broken more families than it has united.It is also a fact that Indian society has still not accepted divorce as a respectable option in life. As a result, women who appear to be relatively more sensitive to public disapproval, feel constrained to make allegations of cruelty, dowry harassment, desertion and other serious accusations against husbands and their families when, in reality, they have unilaterally made the decision to end their marriage for various reasons which may or may not be valid or acceptable according to the society, or their respective peer groups.
Complicating the issue further, the Indian judiciary has taken up the grand agenda of saving marriages. Courts take years to grant divorce in the hope that somehow, a husband and wife will “reconcile” and “reunite” after exchanging vicious allegations against each other and after turning into bitter enemies who cannot stand to even see each other. The cases are dragged over many years, ignoring the natural physical, psychological and biological needs of young men and women, and cause irreparable damage to their individual lives.
The dilemma facing us is that the Indian society and the agenda of the Courts are in direct conflict with the Hindu Marriage Act, and instead of enabling women to free themselves from wedlock they end up trapping both men and women in a deadlock.
The trauma of false allegations, criminal cases, separation from children and the burden of paying huge amounts of money as maintenance are making men so miserable that thousands of men are ending their own lives every year. Recently, incidents of husbands murdering their spouses are also becoming commonplace.There are also a growing number of women who realize a little too late that they have made a mistake or have been misled, but cannot go back and restore their marriage after it has been irretrievably broken by the legal machinery. Owing to delays in obtaining divorce they are unable to move on, are forced to remain single and are often exploited due to their emotional vulnerability.
The Law Commission has repeatedly made recommendations to make irretrievable breakdown of marriage a ground for divorce, and the Supreme Court of India has passed quite a few judgments to set legal precedents in this matter. Many ordinary citizens have been denied divorce even after 15 years of bitter legal battles. However, it was not until a Union Cabinet Minister’s daughter was denied divorce that the Cabinet decided it was time to make amendments to Indian Marriage (read “Divorce”) laws.
Do we welcome the amendment introducing a new long-awaited ground for divorce?
Irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for divorce would be a welcome change if and only if it will put an end to
The Marriage Laws Amendment Bill 2010 Pdf Free
- the toxic culture of making baseless and false allegations of abuse and cruelty to obtain divorce.
- the mindless practice of painting fathers as abusive and unfit parents and separating them from children.
- the business of daylight robbery in the name of alimony and maintenance to the wife.
- the custom of prolonged legal battles which end up destroying the lives of men, women and children.
The Rajya Sabha on 26 August 2013 passed The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 by voice vote. It seeks to amend the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Special Marriages Act, 1954 which provides for irretrievable breakdown on marriage as a ground for divorce as well as grants women the right to a share in the property of their husbands.
Under the new bill, a provision has been made to restrict the grant of decree of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of marriage if the court is satisfied that adequate provision for the maintenance of children born out of the marriage has not been made consistently with the financial capacities of the parents.
The bill allows wife to oppose grant of divorce on the basis that a dissolution of marriage will lead to grave financial hardships. The court can also restrict grant of divorce if it is not satisfied about adequate provision for maintenance of children born of marriage.
The bill also has provisions that the court shall not hold marriage to have broken down irretrievably unless it is satisfied that the parties to the marriage have lived apart for a continuous period of not less than three years before filing petition for divorce.
The Bill would provide safeguards to parties to marriage who file petition for grant of divorce by consent from the harassment in court if any of the party does not come to the court or willfully avoids the court to keep the divorce proceedings inconclusive.
At present, various grounds for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce are laid down in section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The grounds inter alia include adultery, cruelty, desertion, conversion to another religion, unsoundness of mind, virulent and incurable form of leprosy, venereal disease in a communicable form, renouncement of the world and not heard as being alive for a period of seven years or more. Section 27 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 also lays down similar grounds.
However, section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 28 of the Special Marriage Act provide for divorce by mutual consent as a ground for presenting a petition for dissolution of marriage. The said sections inter alia provide that a petition for dissolution of marriage by mutual consent, if not withdrawn before six months after its presentation or not later than 18 months, then, the court may, on being satisfied after making inquiry, grant decree of divorce by mutual consent. However, it has been observed that the parties who have filed petition for mutual consent suffer in case one of the parties abstains himself or herself from court proceedings and keeps the divorce proceedings inconclusive. This has been causing considerable hardship to the party in dire need of divorce.
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The Law Commission in its 71st report submitted in 1978 had recommended amendments to Hindu Marriage Act to make of irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a new ground for divorce. A report of Law Commission in 2009 had also made similar recommendation. On 23 March 2012, the Union Cabinet of India approved the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010, by which irretrievable breakdown of marriage was included as a ground for dissolving a marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954.