Protest over proposal of “Ministry of Women and Child Development” to offer tax rebates to divorced women

29^th Jan 2016

Bangalore

To,

The Hon’ble President,

Rashtrapati Bhavan                                            

New Delhi – 110 004

Phone: 011 23015321

Subject: Protest over proposal of “Ministry of Women and Child Development” to offer tax rebates to divorced women.

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 14500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

We saw recent article in a section of media that “Ministry of Women and Child Development” has sent a proposal to the Finance ministry to offer tax rebates to divorced women.

1. If tax rebates are offered to “senior citizens” OR to those family who sacrificed their life for nation OR to those “physically disabled” then we can fully understand the intention of the government. But to offer tax rebates to divorced women is bizarre.
2. On the contrary, we should do every-thing to discourage the phenomenon of Divorce in the society but the proposal seems to be encouraging Divorces.
3. Just curious to know, why every proposal from Ministry of women and child development seems to be focusing on women and not for child development? And in the context of women also they seems to be focusing only of divorced women or young daughter-in-law. The older mother-in-law are not women?
4. The very thought of proposal of tax benefit to women who have broken family is very funny. Law must be made in such a way that our culture and traditions of years are protected and safeguarded. Already due to the onslaught of western culture it is very rare to see Joint Families, which are replaced by nuclear families. If government will make such laws of giving benefit to divorced women then indirectly breaking of families will be accelerated.
5. Already there are five laws in India by which women can claim alimony, property and monthly maintenance from Ex Husband. Is that not enough that this new proposal is being brought.
6. In this modern era we should make laws which are “Gender Neutral”. There are thousands of farmers who end their life unable to pay loans, let’s give tax break to them instead of well earning women.
7. If I recall correctly then women are exempted to pay tax till 3 lakh per annum that works out to be 25,000/- INR per month. Is it logical to give tax break to people earning 25K?
8. A divorced women may be getting 10 lakh per annum and a poor man getting 3 lakh per annum. Who deserve tax break in this case?

DEMAND

We demand your intervention and direction to Finance Ministry not to accept any such proposal from “Ministry of Women and Child Development”. Kindly send this petition for the kind consideration of Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitely.

P Suresh, President, 9880141531

National Family Harmony Society

Strong protest by “National Family Harmony Society®” on proposal of Sexual Offender’s Register

helpline@rb.nic.in

To

psuresh29@yahoo.com

Today at 12:01 PM

Dear Sir/Madam,
Your Request/Grievance has been registered vide Registration number PRSEC/E/2015/12036 .Please quote the same in your future correspondance.

23^rd December 2015

Bangalore

To,

The President Of India,
Rashtrapati Bhavan,

New Delhi, India – 110 004

Subject: Strong protest by “National Family Harmony Society®” on proposal of Sexual Offender’s Register

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16000 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.

This is regarding the recent news reports appearing in a section of the media regarding the proposal from Ministry of Home affairs for registry of sex offenders, convicted of sexual offences ranging from voyeurism and stalking to rape and aggravated sexual assault. There is no doubt that we need to do everything to ensure safety of women but while doing so we seems to be guided by emotions and sentiments rather than by past experience.

I as president of National Family Harmony Society register my protest on the said proposal on below counts.

Firstly, before drafting such important legislation, no public consultation has been done which is the normal practice. Even in case of debate over the validity of National Judicial Accountable Commission – NJAC, Supreme Court has invited suggestions from common public and NGOs but before framing such important legislation, Government has not deemed it necessary to initiate public opinion.

Secondly, we know that the victim is severely traumatized in case of the crime. The cases received at our NGO with respect to 498A IPC and Domestic Violence Act shows that when these laws are misused and false cases are filed then the accused is so traumatized that they are driven on the verge of suicide. So we demand that those filing false cases and those who misuse the law should also be penalized and should be shamed so that only those who have been genuinely victimized use the law. All those who misuse the law should also be named in the separate register.

Thirdly, we strongly feel that just adding a person based on the conviction of the lower court may lead to severe damage to the accused in case he is acquitted by the higher courts. So a person’s name should not be added in the Sex Offender’s Register (SOR) unless he has exhausted all his legal and fundamental right till from Supreme Court.

Fourthly, if such persons who are named in the register want to reform then such register will come in the way of their integration in the society. No one will employ them because there name exist in the register. If such people fail to get employment due to this then they may go to any extent for their livelihood. This will prove to be counter-productive.

Fifthly, I feel, placing the man’s name on the registry, which is public, amounts to “cruel and/or unusual punishment” under the Constitution. Having his name on the searchable database will hurt his ability to find jobs, affect his family life and resulted in depression.

Sixthly, bringing new laws for the ever changing society is needed but what is also needed is proper checks and balances to prevent its misuse because our criminal system is based on a single innocent should not be punished. This is very important in the light of thousands of incidents recently reported which were found to be false. There have been incidents where a person was convicted on false complaint and were later acquitted by High Court or Supreme Court.

With profound respects, Jai Hind!!!

 

P Suresh, Mobile-9880141531

President, National Family Harmony Society

http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in

Regarding inviting suggestion of collegium system from public

P SURESH <psuresh29@yahoo.com>

To

collegium-improvement@gov.in collegium-suggestions@gov.in

Nov 12 at 1:02 PM

Dear Sir,

 

Subject: Regarding inviting suggestion of collegium system from public

 

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and“gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 14500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.

 

1. Transparency in the process:

 

DISCUSSION: There is a set process of appointment of Judges to the lower Judiciary, i.e. Magistrate Court, Session/District courts but in general there is lack of visibility on “How the Judges are appointed/selected to the higher courts i.e. High Court and Supreme Court”. The common public of this country thinks there is secrecy in the appointment of Judges.

 

SUGGESTIONS:

a.    The sanctioned strength and the vacancies should be prominently published in the respective High Courts and Supreme Court on live basis, i.e. it should indicate the true/live/current status at any given point of time.

b.    The process followed to appoint a Judge, right from the point of inviting application to appointment should be published in the respective High Courts and Supreme Court websites.

c.    Inviting application for the Judges should be published in the News Paper, Bar Council Notice board and Court Websites, as is done for appointment of any vacancy of Government Job.

d.    On appointment, the detailed Resume of the Judge, alongwith the summary reports of the intelligence agencies, Law Ministry report, comments of the President of India etc should be displayed in the Court Website. This will instill confidence in the mind of general/common public that they are in safe hands.

e.    Upon appointment, the reason of appointment on both angles viz. Honesty/Integrity and “eligibility criteria” should be published.

f.     The asset of the Judges including his nearest family members and his income should be regularly published in the website.

g.    Any document, file or report associated with the appointment of Judges should be obtainable under RTI and should be available in the public domain.

h.    The reason for rejection of a particular lawyer for appointment as Judge must be spelt with clarity and must be available in public domain.

i.      The reason of appointment/selection of a particular lawyer compared to another lawyer for appointment as Judge must be recorded in writing and should be available in public domain.

j.      It is not proper to keep Executive totally out of the selection process either on the ground that “Executive is the biggest Litigant” or because “Judiciary does not trust Executive” or because “Executive will try to push Judges favorable to them”. The opinion of the Executive may be kept as “Not Binding” on the selection process but the opinion/report/suggestions of the Executive must be obtained by collegium system and in case if the objection of the Executive is overruled then the reasons must be recorded and published accordingly.

k.    There is lack of transparency in the appointment of Judges because there is a strong argument/belief that “Judges are appointing Judges”. This perception can be easily overcome if “proper written procedure/system” is in place and it should appear that the system is selecting Judges not that “Judges are appointing Judges”.  

 

2. A Secretariat for the collegium

 

                DISCUSSION: Official structure of the collegium system is required as now it seems to be run on temporary basis.

 

                SUGGESTIONS:

a.    An official structure for the system should be notified.

b.    It should be headed by a secretary general.

c.    They should maintain a separate website of its office.

 

3. Minimum Eligibility Criteria for the prospective judges

 

DISCUSSION: At present, the vacancies are filled with eligible lawyers and senior district judges in the ratio of 2:1. So in the higher courts the majority of the vacancies are filled from advocates who are “Senior/Experienced Advocates”.

 

                SUGGESTIONS:

a.    The collegium system seems to be unfair to the District Judges who gets less opportunity to be elevated to the higher courts hence the ration should be modified to 1:1.

b.    To have proper check and balances, opinion of two independent committees should be sought. These committees should work independently of the normal selection procedure. First committee should consist of 5 members, all of them consisting of persons of eminent nature from different walks of society. Another committee should consist of 5 members, consisting of lawyers and Judges from another state. The report/opinion of this committee will not be binding on the collegium system but will be of advisory in nature but it will help in having proper check and balances. But again, in case these committees put objections, then the collegium system should record reasons on overruling them.

c.    No advocate shall be appointed as Judge unless he has a success ratio of 65-70% in the litigation has fought.

d.    No District Judge shall be appointed as higher court judge if more than 50% of his judgement has been overturned by the higher court.

e.    Those advocates having strong views in one way and expresses those in public should be disqualified straightway and this should be one of the parameter of selection.

f.     Those having strong one sided opinion about caste/religion/gender should be disqualified automatically.

 

4. Dealing with the Complaints against the prospective appointments.

 

                DISCUSSION: Off course there is every possibility of false and frivolous complaints being filed against possible appointees to prevent them from being elevated but on the other hand there may be genuine complaints as well.

 

                SUGGESTIONS:

a.    All complaints should be filed in the office of secretary general of Collegium system.

b.    No complaint should be entertained which are merely based on assumption, rumors or hearsay.

c.    If the complaint is wrt corruption, then it should be verified/investigated by CBI or any other competent agency.

d.    If the complaint is of the nature of nepotism, then the specific orders on which complaint is there must be looked by a judicial agency, consisting of retired Judges. The members of this judicial agency must be from different state than the candidate against whom complaint is filed.

e.    If the complaint is of the nature of amassing wealth disproportionate to the known income then it must be verified by Income Tax department or any competent agency.

f.     If there are charges of known properties disproportionate to the known income then it must be verified by competent agencies.

g.    While applying for the post of Judge, complete details of all the relatives practicing in the same High Court must be sought and an undertaking must be sought that they will not hear any matter of them or from any advocate from their office.

 

All said and discussed, whether it is “collegium system” or “NJAC”, I stress on below line.

 

Even “vacancies in the posts of Judges” or “delay in appointment” is acceptable but one wrong/undeserving selection must be avoided.

 

Best Regards,

P Suresh, 09880141531

President, National Family Harmony Society

www.family-harmony.org

NFHS sends reality fiction “Just Married: Have You Applied For Bail?” to all 25 Judges of AP High Court

17^th March 2011 / Bangalore

To,

Sri T.Sunil Chowdary, Registrar General,

Andhra Pradesh High Court, Near Govt. City College,

Madina, Charminar, HYDERABAD – 500 066

Subject: Heavy misuse of 498A IPC and launch of Reality Fiction Novel “Just Married: Have You Applied for Bail?”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

 

Dear Sir,

 

The misuse of 498A IPC and other matrimonial laws is an open secret. Even the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and various High Courts on more than one occasion has acknowledged the heavy misuse of 498A and has termed it as “Legal Terror”. Our NGO has been creating awareness in the society and requesting government from several years that there is a serious need to urgently overhaul all the matrimonial laws and to make all of them “Gender Neutral”.

 

We have been trying relentlessly over several years to convince the government that crime has nothing to do with gender and anyone can be perpetrator of crime irrespective of gender.

 

Things would have been still better but for the insensitivity of the Government to make laws only for young married woman. E.g. if we take the example of Protection of Woman from Domestic Violence Act, it does not provide any protection to sisters and mothers of husband even though they are also woman!!

 

We have been holding Protest, Dharna, PILs, Press Conferences, Protest march, Petitioning Government etc, but of no avail. Government seems to be in no mood to listen to us and has turned a blind eye towards us.

 

We have high hopes from Judiciary which over several years have been consistently acknowledging heavy misuse of 498A IPC and other gender biased laws. Our NGO has recently published a reality fiction “Just Married: Have You Applied For Bail?”  which is more or less in similarity with the sarcastic remark once made by the vacation bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and G S Singhvi of Hon’ble  Supreme court that “Even at the time of marriage, anticipatory divorce petitions are being filed,”

 

Our NGO has attached a copy of the book for your kind consideration and reading with high hopes that Judiciary will deal with the misuse cases with iron hand so that innocents are not punished and the well intentioned laws are not misused.

 

As it is not fair on part of any NGO or citizen to directly approach Hon’ble Judges with any grievances or petition, hence requesting you to kindly circulate a copy of the above book to the below list of Judges through your office. Total 25 copies are attached herewith alongwith this petition.

 

1. Hon’ble The Acting Chief Justice N.V.Ramana
2. Hon’ble Ms. Justice G.Rohini
3. Hon’ble Sri Justice Ashutosh Mohunta
4. Hon’ble Sri Justice L.Narasimha Reddy
5. Hon’ble Sri Justice R.Subhash Reddy
6. Hon’ble Sri Justice K.C.Bhanu
7. Hon’ble Sri Justice B.Seshasayana Reddy
8. Hon’ble Sri Justice G.Chandraiah
9. Hon’ble Sri Justice Ramesh Ranganathan
10. Hon’ble Sri Justice G.Bhavani Prasad
11. Hon’ble Sri Justice Nooty. Ramamohana Rao
12. Hon’ble Sri Justice C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy
13. Hon’ble Sri Justice R.Kantha Rao
14. Hon’ble Sri Justice Vilas V.Afzulpurkar
15. Hon’ble Sri Justice P.V.Sanjay Kumar
16. Hon’ble Sri Justice B.Chandra Kumar
17. Hon’ble Sri Justice Raja. Elango
18. Hon’ble Sri Sri Justice B.N.Rao Nalla
19. Hon’ble Sri Justice Samudrala Govinda Rajulu
20. Hon’ble Sri Justice Noushad Ali
21. Hon’ble Sri Justice N.R.L.Nageswara Rao
22. Hon’ble Sri Justice K.G.Shankar
23. Hon’ble Sri Justice N.Ravi Shankar
24. Hon’ble Sri Justice C.Praveen Kumar
25. Hon’ble Sri Justice M.S.Ramachanra Rao

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

P Suresh, President, 09880141531

National Family Harmony Society

NFHS petition to Justice Verma committee on suggestions rearding RAPE laws

30^th Dec 2012

Bangalore

To,

Chairman, Hon’ble Justice J S Verma,
Justice Verma Committee,
New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding suggestions, experience, knowledge and ideas from our NGO “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS regarding possible amendments to the criminal and other laws of Sexual Assault

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

 

Dear Sir,

 

The National Capital Delhi has been witnessing widespread demonstration, protest by members of public and members of some political parties regarding the recent assault on a young woman.

 

Our NGO condemn the incident in strongest possible words to start with this petition.

 

But at the same time I express deep displeasure on the advertisement in leading news papers on 25 December 2012 by your committee. I would like to reproduce the opening lines of the said advertisement.

 

“The recent incident of rape and brutal assault on a young woman in Delhi has shook the conscience of the nation and has triggered a serious debate among jurists, civil society members and women’s groups about inadequacy of the present laws to protect the safety and dignity of women”

 

No doubt everyone is concerned about the safety and dignity of woman but why the conscience of the society is not triggered by the same brutal assault on her boy friend who was accompanying her and who was also thrashed black and blue? Why the Nation does not want to change/amend the laws to make the MEN also safe on the roads during night? Why Nation is not debating the pain and agony of an entire family of a poor constable who lost his life due to the reckless and irresponsible protest by unruly mob? Why we are not debating how to compensate a constable who lost his life on duty? Is the life of the boyfriend who was beaten black and blue and the poor constable less important in any way?

 

We hear in media every other day that elderly couple murdered for gain. Why the conscience of this nation is not triggered on such brutal and gruesome murder on innocent and helpless senior citizens who are at the fag end of their life?

 

If the law is to be amended then why only to amend the law related to woman? Is the life of MEN less worthy?

 

It is really unfortunate that in this era we are making laws keeping gender in mind. Let us keep in mind that a life of a MAN is worth the same the life of a WOMAN. But since the mandate of your committee is limited to invite suggestions regarding amendments to Woman related laws hence I limit myself to suggestions regarding the same.

 

While amending the laws let us not get swayed by emotions and sentiments and rather use our senses because it is very easy to demand to hang a person caught by police but you being a retired judge of the Highest court of this country knows very well the way police works in this country. If the police of our country were fair in investigation and efficient in arresting the right people involved in the crime then there is no need of Judiciary at all.

 

I would offer following suggestions in this regard.

 

Gender Equality: Let us draw our experience of other section of the IPC which has been dealing with crime against woman. The classic section which comes to one’s mind is 498A IPC which deals with cruelty to wife by husband and his relatives. Similarly Protection of Woman from Domestic Violence Act enacted by parliament to protect woman. Since these laws were made keeping in mind to protect woman with no protection to man hence these laws have been seriously abused and misused.  Even as per the own admission of Supreme Court which has termed 498A IPC as Legal Terror. Recently I came across a news article in a newspaper and I have reproduced the news below.

http://www.indiatribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8737:man-raped-by-a-gang-of-girls-claims-perpetrators-shot-mms&catid=125:general-news&Itemid=400

Man ‘raped’ by a gang of girls, claims perpetrators shot MMS

Dehradun (Uttara-khand): Women it seems have turned the table on men, yet again. A man from Dehradun has alleged that a gang of girls abducted, forcefully had sex with him and filmed the act. He also claims he was threatened with dire consequences if the went to the police.

As per the FIR lodged at Kotwali police station a man was abducted from near the Hindu National College by a group of women, raped and an MMS was filmed of the act.

The complainant claimed that on April 9 afternoon a few women approached him asking for directions. One of them sprayed “something” on his face that made him unconscious. He was then taken to a building and sexually molested by the women. He claims a video was also shot while he was being ravaged.

He was later dumped near bus stand with a warning that he would be killed if he informed the police. Cops are getting him examined by a medical professional and investigating the matter.

Law does not provide the perpetrators of the above crime to be booked under 375/376 of IPC as it is not Gender Neutral. It is an accepted practice worldwide that Criminal Laws should not be made keeping a particular gender in mind because a crime is a crime and should not be differentiated based on gender. Our common sense says that a man murdered by woman deserves the same punishment what a man will get for killing a woman.

 

I would like to invite your kind attention to the “ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SECOND REPORT” ON “REVIEW OF RAPE LAWS MARCH, 2000” D.O.No.6(3)(36)/2000_LC(LS) dated March 25, 2000. Section 3.1 of the said reprt recommends following changes to the IPC.

 

3.1.   Substitution of definition of `rape’ by definition of `sexual assault’. Not only women but young boys, are being increasingly subjected to forced sexual assaults. Forced sexual  assault  causes  no  less trauma and psychological damage to a boy than to a girl subjected to such  offence. Boys  and  girls  both  are being subjected to oral sexual intercourse too.  According to some social activists like Ms  Sheela  Barse,  both  young  girls  and boys are being regularly used for all kinds of  sexual  acts  and  sexual perversions  in  certain tourist centres like Goa – mainly for edification of the foreign tourists.  Sakshi have also recommended for widening  the  scope  of  the  offence  in section 375  and  to  make it gender neutral.  Some of the Western countries have already done  this.    It  is  also necessary  to  include  under  this new definition (sexual assault) not only penile penetration but also  penetration by  any  other part of the body (like finger or toe) or by any other object. 

 

Explanation to  section  375  has  also been  substituted  by  us  to  say that penetration to any extent whatsoever shall be deemed to  be  penetration  for the purpose  of this section.  This is so provided for the reason that in the case of children, penetration is rarely complete – for physical reasons.  So far as the  Exception is  concerned, we have retained the existing Exception the only change made being in  the  matter  of  age;  we  have raised the age of the `wife’ from fifteen to sixteen.  The age  of  the  person assaulted sexually referred to in the clause “sixthly” has also  been  raised  to  sixteen  from fifteen.

 

Hence I would strongly suggest to make the IPC 376 Gender Neutral.

 

Misuse for punishment: There have been recent voices about making death punishment for those committing RAPE. Well there is absolutely no problem in it that the punishment for IPC 375/376 can be enhanced to death punishment but the same must be extended to those who misuse the law and implicate innocent with ulterior motives. It is a matter of common knowledge that criminal laws can be very easily misused. Even 498A IPC which was made with very good intention to protect wife has been seriously misused and abused to such an extent that at several occasion Supreme Court has voiced its concern and even asked Government to consider amendments to it. We are concerned that while amending any laws we must keep the misuse clause in it so that it will deter those who want to misuse it and only genuine victims are able to file complaint. It has also come across recently that a large number of rape cases are being filed by women who were living in live-in relations and once the relation soured then they filed case under Domestic Violence Act and Rape case which is nothing but abuse/misuse of the law.

 

I would draw your attention to the below news article

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_rape-case-against-rahul-gandhi-quashed_1753768

“The allegation is without substance and without an iota of evidence,” a bench of justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said on the allegation levelled against Gandhi of rape of a girl in Uttar Pradesh and illegally detaining her along with her parents.

“The reputation of respondent no 6 (Rahul Gandhi) has been damaged by the undesirable act of the petitioner (Samrite),” the bench said.

The apex court further said the petition was “misconceived” and that Samrite abused the process of law on the basis of incorrect statement.

While influential persons like Rahul Gandhi can approach the highest court of this country and get the false case quashed but the common citizen has to wait for several years before false charges against him are proved false by the court of law.

 

Hence we strongly recommend that severe punishment clause must be added if anyone found guilty of misusing this provision to implicate innocents.

 

Fast track Court: On case of both 498A as well as 375/376 IPC it has bee observed that it takes many years for the trial to conclude. Hence we suggest that all such case should be conducted only in the session court so as to speed up the case.

 

In view of the above discussion we suggest following:

 

1. We would strongly suggest to make the IPC 375/376 Gender Neutral.

 

2. Hence we strongly recommend that severe punishment clause must be added if anyone found guilty of misusing this provision to implicate innocents.

 

3. Hence we suggest that all such case including 498A, 375 and 376 should be conducted only in the session court so as to speed up the case.

 

P Suresh, President,

9880141531

National Family Harmony Society

Media or public has no right to conduct trials…Trial by media is violation of human rights…

<<<<Delhi gang rape: Constable injured during Sunday’s protest at India Gate dies>>>>

This poor constable was brutally beaten up by unruly mobs…..Is he not a human being? No one speaks up for him……It is sad that people are driven by media channels who are just interested in TRP’s…Who are playing with emotions of people because in this country a crime against a lady evokes emotions… Whereas a crime against a man (even no one seems no bother about the boy friend seriously injured with the girl) is acceptable.

1)      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_India Did the TV channels ever bother about the suicide by farmers….Did they ever ran 24X7 campaign for this issue? Did people in Delhi ever protested for the farmers dying out of hunger?

 

2)      http://ibnlive.in.com/news/all-let-off-in-nisha-sharma-dowry-case-after-9-years/235004-3.html Did people ever protested when it was found that Nisha Sharma has falsely implicated an entire family on false charges of dowry and sent them to jail for years and the entire family was found to be innocent and it was found that Nisha Sharma has leveled baseless, false allegations against the entire family. Why people of Delhi did not protest? That incident happened in Ghajiyabad just in the vicinity of Delhi.

 

3)      http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/jun/210609-Zoya-two-month-old-girl-anticipatory-bail-dowry-harrassment-case-youngest-accused-Mumbai-news.htm Why the people of this country do not protest when a small 2 month baby was falsely named in FIR and made to suffer? Why the emotions of the people are not stirred in such cases?

 

4)      http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mumbai-woman-kills-chops-her-husbands-body-into-11-pieces/311046-3-237.html Why the people of this country did not protest on such a gruesome murder by wife? Worst in this case is the wife murdered husband when he found that his wife was in illicit relation. Why the emotion of the people was not stirred? Why they kept quite and did not lay seize of India gate?

 

5)      http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/9658235-woman-poisons-husband-chops-off-his-penis-then-flushes-it-down-garbage-disposal Why people of this country did not march towards Raisana Hills and 10 Janpath? Why they kept quite? Is the pain of a man whose genitals has been chopped off less painful than a woman being raped?

 

6)      http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-11/chennai/35748963_1_mohammedan-law-mansoor-ali-khan-trial-court This lady harassed mansoor ali khan for 16 years and he was in jail on false charges by lady. Why people did not caught this lady and punish her on the streets. This person suffered a significant portion of his life running behind courts and was in jail for no fault of his. Where were the people then?

 

Why people were not hurt and did not feel anger in all the above cases? Because a crime against a man is accepted in this country… It is “Chalta Hai” attitude of the people….A penis chopped off of a man is a matter of amusement and fun for the public but a rape of a woman is a matter of venting frustration on the streets.

 

Looking from another angle to this issue….What the protestors want? If by their logic that accused who are arrested must be hanged…….If this logic is accepted then there is no need for courts. If all the accused arrested by the police are criminals then where is the need of the courts. Because in this country police does not do their jobs properly and arrests anyone to release pressure on them…that’s why there is the criminal justice system…..because 100’s of criminals can be let off but one innocent person should not be punished….

 

Media or public has no right to conduct trials…Trial by media is violation of human rights…

 

Wah…Indian Public Wah…No wonder Justice Katju said that “90 % people of this country are Idiots”.

 

NFHS strongly condemns WCD proposal re salary to housewife…Petition sent to PM…

To,                                                                                                                                                                                                          29^th September 2012 / Bangalore

Honorable Prime Minister of India,

Prime Minister’s Office, Room No: 148 B,

South Block, New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding unscientific proposal by Women and Child Welfare Ministry regarding salary to housewives for household work.

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16000 members all over India. To know more about us please visit www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in / https://498amisuse.wordpress.com

 

The entire nation has been watching in horror, dismay and shock the recent proposal from the Ministry of Women and Child Development that it will be mandatory for husbands to pay salary for housewives for household work. Such bizarre thoughts and horrible proposal from WCD is a result of viewing women from a prism, which cannot see anything but only wives. We are particularly using the word wives as the said ministry has lost sight of other women like mother and sisters.

By making such a proposal wherein the said ministry has proposed salary for doing household work to wife, they have degraded the value of Indian wife. Only a servant is paid for doing household work. In this country where a woman is worshiped as goddess, the said ministry has degraded the values of a woman from goddess to servant. It is really pity on them that they are actually comparing a wife to servant and asking husbands to pay for it. Has our Indian woman’s value degraded so much that they need salary for performing the duties and responsibilities towards their family? Can we imagine what could have happened, if our mother had asked salary from our father? This thought is so bizarre even to think off.

Has the said ministry understood the family system of our great nation? Probably not!! Because as the name of the ministry suggest that it is only ministry of women and child welfare!! They have nothing to do with family or family welfare. The said ministry cannot see anything beyond woman (Read wife as they have nothing to offer for the benefit and welfare of mothers and sisters) and in the process by making such laws and proposals in the name of woman welfare, actually they are destroying the age old tested and proven family system of India.

It is an open secret that current woman welfare laws designed by the said ministry e.g. 498A IPC, Domestic violence Act, Hindi Marriage Act etc has accelerated the process of family disintegration. These existing laws which are gender biased, in favor of woman, has been the single most factor for conflicts and breaking of families. Concerned and alarmed over the rapid pace of the disintegration of families and the courts being flooded with divorce petitions, a vacation Bench of Supreme Court, Justices Arijit Pasayat and G S Singhvi observed that “The Hindu Marriages Act has broken more homes than uniting,” “Even at the time of marriages, anticipatory divorce petitions are being filed,” the Bench remarked sarcastically.

The misuse of the gender biased laws such as 498A IPC, Domestic violence Act is an open secret. It has become a fashion to drag the entire innocent family to court and police station just on a false complaint of Dowry harassment. Simply because these Gender biased laws were designed in an un-scientific manner without gauging the ground realities. No wonder that these gender biased laws have become the primary reason for the breaking of families.

Off course WCD will wash their hands citing that their mandate is for the benefit of woman and they have nothing to do with welfare of family or protection of family.

Paying salary to wife for house hold work is not heard off even in well developed western countries. By making such anti family laws our great nation should not become a laughing stock in others eye. On a lighter note it can be imagined that Indian embassies in abroad are working overnight to clear VISA applications of women as they can enter India, get married and get paid after marriage.

If we think of our age old family system then we realize that in the olden days we had concept of joint family then over the period of time due to the unscientific and old fashioned gender biased laws the joint families disintegrated and we were left with nuclear family. Now due to such anti family laws which are made in the name of woman empowerment, daughter in laws are not allowing parents in law in the house and in the name of family we are left with husband, wife and children. Now due to these laws, even this structure of family is crumbling. If we think of the age old joint family system, each and every member had duty and responsibility and they performed their duties without any thought of getting paid. If this bizarre proposal of the WCD is accepted then the days is not far off when fathers will start claiming salary from son in old age, mother will start claiming salary from her children, and sisters will ask salary from brothers. Since family is the basic unit of the society hence eventually due to the said proposal first families and consequently society will collapse.

Western nations and other developed nation look upon our great nation as we have a strong family set up. A setup which is based on love and affection and it is due to this strong family setup that our society is strong and solid. Let us not create fixtures and rift in family by such proposals.

In the context of above paragraph, even the thought of payment to wife is highly deplorable because you being Ex governor of reserve bank of India and Ex Finance minister of this country knows very well that payment, loss, profit, revenues etc are the terms used in corporate, business and companies not in the context of family. Let not degrade our family system by comparing it to business. Family is a setup where each and every member has his duty and responsibility and they do it for family not for payment.

Family is a setup where each and every member is safe and secure. Let us not break our age old tested system of FAMILY by talking about such unscientific, unhealthy and absurd laws. In families each and every member has his role, duties and responsibilities clearly defined. Let us not create friction within the family by such proposals.

As has been already discussed that the view taken by WCD is very narrow minded and not keeping in with the changed situation and circumstances of the society. Is WCD going to enact different laws for families in which   husband is unable to work due to medical reasons and wife is the bread earner of the family? One more common scenario nowadays is both husband and wife going for job and earning livelihood for running family. In these kind of scenarios who will pay whom? Now there are also situations where husband is sharing household work, now he will no more be obligated to share the household responsibilities as he would in fact become a customer by paying for domestic chores and wife will be a service provider getting paid for her “services”. This can disturb the harmonious gender relationships in Indian families and even society at large. This proposal ensures that women get money for work. So what will happen to those women who are unable to work due to medical reasons or old age or otherwise?

Now since WCD is hell bent on changing the definition of wife from homemaker to a servant, wife will also be adamant that she will also only match the working hour of husband i.e. 9 am to 6 pm per day and for the remaining hours of work she will demand a maid servant. She may claim overtime if asked to work beyond working hours!! Now since WCD is talking of salary hence wife will demand holiday on Saturday and Sundays. She may also demand rest on national holidays? Does WCD have answer for all these questions? Marriage will be commercialized soon if the wish list of the WCD is implemented. This will further lead to total anarchy and chaos in the society and erosion of our culture. Even the husband will think why to marry and pay the wife for household work. Employing a maid servant would be same as marrying except physical relations. As of now WCD is demanding salary to wife for household work thus relegating her status to a servant. It is unimaginable even to think of a situation if WCD starts demanding money for wife for physical relations. It is even unthinkable even to think what will be status of such wives? Though harsh but the way WCD is fastening the breakup of family probably that day is not very far away.

This proposal will increase gender discrimination by leaps and bounds. In this era of 21^st century, when most of the woman is educated, the proposal of WCD that women are only fit for household work is unthinkable to say the least. Over the many decades society has undergone wide positive changes. This proposal will push back the society by few decades.

Over the decades Government of India and state governments have been working towards achieving gender equality They are trying to reduce the discrimination between male and female citizens in various spheres. But, now we are having such a situation where WCD itself is pushing the status of women to servant and that of husband to master. Let WCD realize that the relation of husband and wife is based on love, trust and affection rather that employer and employee OR master and slave.

This proposal from WCD has got wide media coverage. Every national and regional newspaper has covered this news article. A small school going child in my neighborhood also read this in newspaper and she asked me “Uncle, does it mean that women are meant to be servant and doing house work only. If that is so then why we have to study?” She further asked me “Actually I also help my mother in house hold work. Can I also ask salary from my parent?” This indicates that the mindset with which children will be brought up. Female students will think that they are meant to become servant/employee and male student will think that they have to pay wife for every service and they are masters/employer. Let it be house hold work or physical relations or any such thing husband and wife will always think of master and servant relations. This kind of mind set is going to impart complex in the mind of innocent children and instead of getting good education and becoming good and responsible citizens of this country female students will think how much my husband will pay me. I should only select a rich husband to get better pay? and male students will think how much they have to pay to wife? This will lead to further discrimination and inferiority complex in children.

It took many years for the society to churn out in positive direction. This is an era when women are working in multi nationals companies and leading in many spheres of life. This proposal of WCD will reduce marriages as both MEN and WOMEN will think why marriage is required if one partner is to live the life of a servant and other partner has to pay to a wife/servant? The very institution of the marriage has come under attack and threat by this proposal.

If we have any ambition of becoming a great developed nation then we should have laws which are forward looking and progressive in nature. Unfortunately still we are having laws which were made by British for their benefits. Instead of fine tuning the existing laws to make them gender neutral, progressive, WCD is making one after another proposals which will only create further fixtures and conflicts in the family and society.

D E M A N D   OF   N F H S

Let WCD understand that a family set up will collapse by such absurd proposals and it will lead to further discrimination in the society between both genders. Let us make laws so that both genders stay in harmony rather than in conflicts. Let us make laws for the benefit of FAMILY so that everyone member in the FAMILY can reap the benefit of laws. NFHS demands immediate rollback of this proposal in the interest of WOMEN, MEN and FAMILY.

 

Thanking you Sir

                                                           P Suresh, President, 9880141531,

                  National Family Harmony Society

Regarding Corruption in Judiciary

NHFS/140811/1                                                                                  14^rd August 2010 / Bangalore

To,

Honorable Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister’s Office,

Room No: 148 B,

South Block, New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding Corruption in Judiciary

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHSis a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

I would like to draw your kind attention to the recent comments of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of State of West Bengal, Madam Mamta Banerjee.

Reference: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/some-times-court-verdicts-are-purchased-mamata/282322-37-64.html

“At times favourable verdicts are given in return for money. These days, judgments are purchased. There is corruption among a section of the judiciary. I know there can be a defamation suit against me for saying this. But this must be said and I am ready to go to jail for saying so,” she said in the West Bengal Assembly.

Judiciary has to be clean and corruption free because that is the only institution citizens has still some faith still left. There is no effective mechanism/body/institution to deal with corruption in Judiciary. Currently even though it a matter of common knowledge that corruption does exist in judiciary but it is not spoken openly just because people fear the contempt of court for criticizing judiciary.

Expecting the judiciary to correct its own shortcomings may be as hopeless as expecting the Indian Administrative Services to provide for the punishment of their own or expecting the politicians to clean up their own act. There must be a third party watchdog to “keep a watch“, scrutinize and “to take action” in case of allegations of misconduct and corruption. Judges are one among us and part of the society. There could be temptations to succumb to corruption and still not being caught.

• The recent shameful “Cash for Bail” scam involving judge T Pattabhirama Rao is fresh in minds of citizens of this country. Though privately it is an open secret that “Cash for Bail” is a flourishing business in this country but no one has guts to speak on this due to the power of the Judiciary who are enjoying the shield of “Contempt of Court”.

 

• The Supreme Court’s observations on the rot in the Allahabad High Court are disturbing. A Bench consisting of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra said on November 26, 2010 that most judges of this High Court [Allahabad] are corrupt and collude with advocates. Sadly, many High Court judges are facing charges of corruption. The charge that many former Chief Justices of India were corrupt has given a new twist to judicial corruption.

 

• There is also the Rs 23-crore Ghaziabad PF scam in which a Supreme Court judge (since retired), seven Allahabad High Court judges, 12 judges of the subordinate courts and six retired High Court judges are allegedly involved. The key accused, Ashutosh Asthana, died in jail mysteriously in October, 2009. He had provided vital documents to the CBI that established connivance of these judges.

 

• Justice Sumitra Sen, Justice Nirmal Yadav, UP PF Scan involving Judges, Justice Katju’s remarks about Allahabad HC Judges and Justice Dinakaran are few example/incidents which would have never got exposed in 60’s, 70’s, 80’s or 90’s but have been exposed due to vigilant Media. These incidents had eroded the faith of the common man in Judiciary. The point is if a Judge is corrupt then why not to act swiftly against him/her before further damage is done.

Corrupt judges in the higher judiciary can be removed only by impeachment. However, this method is cumbersome. The problem is not just a question of devising proposals for removal. The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, prefaces impeachment by judicial inquiry. In Supreme Court Judge Justice V. Ramaswamy’s case, the inquiry indicted him but the impeachment motion fell through in Parliament in 1992.

Justice Katju and Justice Misra also referred to the syndrome of “uncle judges”. The Union Law Ministry admits that this menace has spread to many High Courts, including those in Chandigarh, Shimla and Jaipur. In its 230th Report (2009), the Law Commission has recommended that in order to eliminate the practice of “uncle judges”, the judges, whose kith and kin are practicing in a High Court, should not be posted in the same High Court. Union Law Minister should work on a proposal to check this menace.

Corruption in Judiciary is very serious issue because impeachment mechanism to remove Judges in case of misconduct/corruption has failed miserably and is not effective. Hence we need a Lokpal/“Independent Constitutional Institution” who will not need sanction from President/Government to proceed against a Judge facing corruption allegations or misconduct allegations. We need a Lokpal/“Independent Constitutional Institution” who can investigate and if he finds prima facie evidence of corruption/misconduct against Judge then he can prosecute either through its police/CBI/own prosecution wing.

We need your pro-active intervention and pro active decision to see the misery of the common public who are facing litigations and are victims of such misconduct and corruption but are unable to speak a word due to the power of “Contempt of court”. The time has come wherein Judiciary should be transparent, should be open to fair amount of criticism, and should be open to investigation in case of alleged corruption.

 

Judges appointing Judges & Judges Investigation Judges & Judges promoting Judges will only result in Judges protecting Judges!!!

 

In view of the above said discussion we demand following

• Bring Judiciary (Both higher and lower) in the ambit of Lokpal/“Independent Constitutional Institution”
• Pass the Judicial accountability Bill as soon as possible.
• Whistle-blower should be protected from suppressive Contempt proceedings
• Suo moto power to Lokpal/“Independent Constitutional Institution” to investigate against any Judge including HC/SC of charges of corruption/misconduct.
• Lokpal/“Independent Constitutional Institution” should not require sanction from Government before proceeding against a Judge.
• Prosecute Judge if prima facie evidence is found and to suspend him/her immediately.
• The government should fast-track all cases of moral turpitude, corruption and nepotism.
• The process of impeachment of a judge should be speeded up with a time limit for obtaining the President’s sanction and impeaching him/her.
• There is a need to change the method of selection of judges. The current collegium system of appointment of judges has failed to attract persons of impeccable integrity to Judiciary.
• The country deserves a more credible, transparent and broad-based institutional mechanism for selecting judges.
• As the UK Supreme Court had done early this year, our apex court, too, should advertise vacancies in the Supreme Court and High Courts in the newspapers.
• Judicial orders/Judgments’ should be subject to the review by an independent body if it is felt that the order was passed by corrupt means.

 

 

We submit that our suggestions are just and reasonable and in the event of non implementation of our suggestions, we would be constrained to go to the streets with Dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests. Please save our great Nation.

Kindly send a copy of this petition for immediate action to Law Ministry and Hon’ble Chief Justice of India.

 

Jai Hind!!  With profound respects,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                       9731569970

Petition praying for amendments to the PWDVA(Domestic Violence Act) in Rajya Sabha

NFHS Flash Dharna 17th September – 9-11 AM to protest against the 498A report by Committee on Petitions of Rajya Sabha under the Chairmanship of Shri Bhagat Singh

sanjevaani……………………………………….NFHS Announces Flash Dharna……………………………………….

Venue at Town Hall, Bangalore on 17-09-2011

Dharna starts @9.00 AM / Dharna ends @11.00 AM

………………………………………………All are invited to attend……………………………………………

 

Rajya Sabha Press Release—->

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/rajya-sabha-press-release/

 

NFHS Press release——————>

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/nfhs-strongly-opposes-one-hundred-and-fortieth-report-on-the-committee-on-petitions-of-rajya-sabha-under-the-chairmanship-of-shri-bhagat-singh-koshyari-regarding-498a-amendments/

 

NFHS Protest letter to Honorable Chairman of the Rajya Sabha—->

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/regarding-hundred-and-fortieth-report-on-the-committee-on-petitions-of-rajya-sabha-under-the-chairmanship-of-shri-bhagat-singh-koshyari-m-p/

Pictures shot at the venue—->

https://picasaweb.google.com/117609073144184200949/NFHSDharnaOn17092011TownHallBangaloreToProtestOneHundredAndFortiethReportOnTheCom?authkey=Gv1sRgCMKp9dfx-r67gAE#

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.235702756481308.80968.124220007629584

Press coverage—->SanJevaani

Press coverage—->Eenadu-18-Sep-2011

eenadu-18-sep-2011.pdf

 

Press coverage—->VijayaKarnataka-18-Sep-2011

Regarding Hundred and Fortieth Report on the Committee on Petitions of Rajya Sabha under the Chairmanship of Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, M.P.

8^th July 2010/Bangalore

To,

Honorable Chairman of the Rajya Sabha,

Office of Chairman, Rajya Sabha,  Parliament House,New Delhi-110001

Subject: Regarding Hundred and Fortieth Report on the Committee on Petitions of Rajya Sabha under the Chairmanship of Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, M.P.

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

The Committee on Petitions of Rajya Sabha under the Chairmanship of Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, M.P. presented its Hundred and Fortieth Report to the Rajya Sabha on 7th September, 2011 on the petition praying for amendments in Section 498A of Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Petition was submitted by Dr. Anupama Singh, a resident of New Delhi.

 

The committee has given some recommendations to Rajya Sabha regarding 498A IPC. Before discussing merits or demerits or expressing our opinion on them, we would like to present different perspective of this issue because the committee has deliberated and recommended some ways and methods to “Stop the misuse of 498A IPC”.

 

There may not be difference of opinion in this country if the subject matter to be discussed is “protection of women”. No doubt, 498A IPC was framed to prevent cruelty on women and act as a deterrent against cruelty on women. If that is the case then the petition is submitted by Dr Anupama Singh who herself is women. The fact that the law has failed and has not solved its purpose and has been seriously misused and abused by greedy women to settle score with husband and his family members is not in dispute.

 

The problem is the committee has given a very technical and legal opinion to an issue which is entirely social and matrimonial in nature and has limited its scope of discussion. E.g.

In the para 13.8 of the report the committee acknowledges that measures are required to “check on false complaints”. The committee recommends that “The Committee feels that the Government should consider providing legal remedies for preventing filing of false complaints or complaints with ulterior motive to harass the husband and his relatives under Section 498A. The Committee recommends that Section 498A be amended so as to provide for specific penalty in case the complaint is found to be false or with some other ulterior motive.”

 

So when the misuse and abuse of the law is very clear and it is acknowledged that husbands and their family members are also victims of violence, cruelty and false cases then the scope of the discussion should not be limited to “Stop the abuse the 498A IPC”. The larger issue is “Abuse and misuse of Gender biased laws” and “Protection to husband and his family members”.

 

There are many laws and Acts to deal with matrimonial disputes and most of them are NOT “Gender Neutral”. Some of them are 498A IPC, Protection of women from domestic violence Act, 125 of CrPC, Hindu marriage Act, Hindu adoption and succession Act, Guardian and wards Act etc. All these Acts and IPC/CrPC section deals with “Protection to women”, “Alimony and maintenance to women”, “Divorce and child custody” etc. It is well known that all these laws are being heavily misused by greedy women to settle score and to harass the husbands and his family members.

 

The argument of women faces e.g. that of Ex-WCD minister Smt Renuka Chowdry that “women has been suffering from ages and now it is the turn of MEN to suffer” (In one of her TV interviews) OR that “Abuse and misuse is in small number so it is ok” OR to say that “Any law for that matter is being misused” has only aggravated the issue.

 

Unless the government looks at the this grave issue in its entirety and makes serious attempt to solve it by simplifying the laws rather than duplicating the laws this issue will never be solved. We think now the time has come so that Government should look at the larger issue wrt the matrimonial disputes. In view of the above discussion we strongly oppose the report which is nothing but half hearted attempt by Government which is not going to solve the issue. Hence we demand following.

 

• Misuse and abuse of Laws: Heavy punishment by the way of imprisonment should be introduced in case of misuse of any matrimonial laws.
• Make matrimonial disputes “Gender biased”. Government is completely ignoring the pain, harassment and torture of husband and his family’s members which they suffer at the hands of greedy women. Thousands of husbands have got divorce from wife on the ground of cruelty. This proves that women also can be cruel. Hence matrimonial laws should be made “Gender neutral” to provide protection to husbands and his family members.
• Duplication of Laws: Just to deal with the maintenance for wife there are 6 different laws. This is due to the mindset of our law makers to make a new law if there is complaint regarding old law. When Hindu marriage act was already there to deal with the maintenance of the wife then there was no need to bring CrPC 125, or Domestic violence act or HAMA.
• The definition of women is “Newly married young women”: Even though it is matter of common knowledge that daughter-in-law’s treat their mother-in-law with cruelty even then “Matrimonial laws” are only meant for “Newly married young women”. This must be amended to given protection to all without any consideration of gender or age.
• Protection to Husband and his families: Currently Husband and his family members do not have any protection from the cruelty of daughter-in-law. Laws should be made gender-neutral for their protection.
• Child custody issues: Government should bring in amendment for “Shared Parenting”.
• Never ending litigations: The litigations are so lengthy that by the time a father files for child custody and by the time matter is decided by Supreme Court, the child is ready to have his own child. And similarly once a divorce is filed by spouse, and by the time Supreme Court decides it couple are at the verge of retirement. The litigation in case of matrimonial disputes should be finished in a time bound manner of 1 year.
• Simplification of Divorce laws: What the relatives and the social circle cannot achieve is sought to be achieved that too by an over burdened presiding officer. Divorces are denied in a routine manner even when criminal cases are pending. Law should be modified keeping in mind the changed social structure.
• Try all matrimonial disputes under civil law: Involvement of police breaks any possibility of re-union between the couple.

 

Attempt by Government to do some temporary, ad-hoc and stop-gap arrangement by fixing some loop holes in the 498A IPC is neither going to stop the misuse of “Gender biased” laws nor it is going to provide any “protection to husband and his family members” from potential misuse and abuse of law. Government instead of taking ad-hoc and temporary steps should constitute a committee for overhaul of overall matrimonial laws rather than approaching the issue piecemeal basis which will aggravate the issue rather than solving it.  

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President

9880141531

 

NFHS member saravan sharing his experience on how his wife’s DV application was dismissed.

It is a fully contested case and sarvanan concerntarted on following….

Demolish allegations one by one…

Concentrated to prove that she left on her own….

Concentrated to prove that his parrent stayed separately and hence there can be no DV from them…

Well Done Saravanan….

It is one of the few cases in Indian where a DV case has been won by husband after evidence, cross, argument and based on merits..

 

The last two lines of the Judgement.

 

Petitioner has failed to prove Domestic Violence 🙂

NFHS Discussion on Inclusion of Juiciary in Lokpal

NFHS MEMO to PM, President, Law Minister/Commission, Lok/Rajya Sabha Speakers, NAC regarding “inclusion of Judiciary in the proposed Lokpal and other Judicial reforms”

28^th Aug 2011/ Bangalore

To,

Honorable Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister’s Office,

Room No: 148 B,

South Block, New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding inclusion of Judiciary in the proposed Lokpal and other Judicial reforms

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

The entire nation has been watching the recent dramatic events unfolding all over the Country regarding the Lokpal bill, wherein the Government has agreed to bring a Lokpal bill to the parliament for discussion and approval. Within no time of simultaneous protests across the nation, Government has acted swiftly to bring the BILL to the parliament.

Sadly this has happened because the Government has been reactive than pro-active. I would like to bring to your kind attention some important issues wrt the Lokpal BILL. That is the inclusion of Judiciary (both higher and lower) in the ambit of the proposed Lokpal.

Judiciary has to be clean and corruption free because that is the only institution citizens has still some faith still left. There is no effective mechanism/body/institution to deal with corruption in Judiciary. Currently even though it a matter of common knowledge that corruption does exist in judiciary but it is not spoken openly just because people fear the contempt of court for criticizing judiciary.

Expecting the judiciary to correct its own shortcomings may be as hopeless as expecting the Indian Administrative Services to provide for the punishment of their own or expecting the politicians to clean up their own act. There must be a third party watchdog to “keep a watch“, scrutinize and “to take action” in case of allegations of misconduct and corruption. Judges are one among us and part of the society. There could be temptations to succumb to corruption and still not being caught.

The Supreme Court’s observations on the rot in the Allahabad High Court are disturbing. A Bench consisting of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra said on November 26, 2010 that most judges of this High Court [Allahabad] are corrupt and collude with advocates. Sadly, many High Court judges are facing charges of corruption. The charge that many former Chief Justices of India were corrupt has given a new twist to judicial corruption.

There is also the Rs 23-crore Ghaziabad PF scam in which a Supreme Court judge (since retired), seven Allahabad High Court judges, 12 judges of the subordinate courts and six retired High Court judges are allegedly involved. The key accused, Ashutosh Asthana, died in jail mysteriously in October, 2009. He had provided vital documents to the CBI that established connivance of these judges.

Justice Sumitra Sen, Justice Nirmal Yadav, UP PF Scan involving Judges, Justice Katju’s remarks about Allahabad HC Judges and Justice Dinakaran are few example/incidents which would have never got exposed in 60’s, 70’s, 80’s or 90’s but have been exposed due to vigilant Media. These incidents had eroded the faith of the common man in Judiciary. The point is if a Judge is corrupt then why not to act swiftly against him/her before further damage is done.

Corrupt judges in the higher judiciary can be removed only by impeachment. However, this method is cumbersome. The problem is not just a question of devising proposals for removal. The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, prefaces impeachment by judicial inquiry. In Supreme Court Judge Justice V. Ramaswamy’s case, the inquiry indicted him but the impeachment motion fell through in Parliament in 1992.

Justice Katju and Justice Misra also referred to the syndrome of “uncle judges”. The Union Law Ministry admits that this menace has spread to many High Courts, including those in Chandigarh, Shimla and Jaipur. In its 230th Report (2009), the Law Commission has recommended that in order to eliminate the practice of “uncle judges”, the judges, whose kith and kin are practicing in a High Court, should not be posted in the same High Court. Union Law Minister should work on a proposal to check this menace.

Corruption in Judiciary is very serious issue because impeachment mechanism to remove Judges in case of misconduct/corruption has failed miserably and is not effective. Hence we need a Lokpal who will not need sanction from President/Government to proceed against a Judge facing corruption allegations or misconduct allegations. We need a Lokpal who can investigate and if he finds prima facie evidence of corruption/misconduct against Judge then he can prosecute either through its police/CBI/own prosecution wing.

We need your pro-active intervention and pro active decision to see the misery of the common public who are facing litigations and are victims of such misconduct and corruption but are unable to speak a word due to the power of “Contempt of court”. The time has come wherein Judiciary should be transparent, should be open to fair amount of criticism, and should be open to investigation in case of alleged corruption.

 

Judges appointing Judges & Judges Investigation Judges & Judges promoting Judges will only result in Judges protecting Judges!!!

In view of the above said discussion we demand following

• Bring Judiciary (Both higher and lower) in the ambit of proposed Lokpal
• Suo moto power to Lokpal to investigate against any Judge including HC/SC of charges of corruption/misconduct.
• Lokpal should not require sanction from Government before proceeding against a Judge.
• Prosecute Judge if prima facie evidence is found and to suspend him/her immediately.
• The government should fast-track all cases of moral turpitude, corruption and nepotism.
• The process of impeachment of a judge should be speeded up with a time limit for obtaining the President’s sanction and impeaching him/her.
• There is a need to change the method of selection of judges. The current collegium system of appointment of judges has failed to attract persons of impeccable integrity to Judiciary.
• The country deserves a more credible, transparent and broad-based institutional mechanism for selecting judges.
• As the UK Supreme Court had done early this year, our apex court, too, should advertise vacancies in the Supreme Court and High Courts in the newspapers.
• Judicial orders/Judgments’ should be subject to the review by an independent body if it is felt that the order was passed by corrupt means.

 

 

We submit that our suggestions are just and reasonable and in the event of non implementation of our suggestions, we would be constrained to go to the streets with Dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests. Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!  With profound respects,

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

NFHS postcard campaign to include Judiciary in Lokpal and discussion on Lokpal: How relevant it is for our movement?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJUi6mt2Bmc

NFHS MEMO to President Regarding misrepresentation of facts by Minister for WCD on “Protection of women from domestic violence act”

19^th Aug 2011/ Bangalore

To,

Honorable President of India,

President’s Office,

Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi – 110011

 

Subject: Regarding misrepresentation of facts by Minister for WCD on “Protection of women from domestic violence act”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Madam,

 

We want to register our strong protest against the gross mis-representation of data by Union women and child development minister Krishna Tirath in the Lok Sabha on 19^th August2011. Kindly refer to the below news article.

 

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/184815/40-percent-married-women-face.html

As per this news, the minister has informed the Lok Sabha that a total of 5,788 cases were registered under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act in 2007, 5,643 cases in 2008 and 7,802 in 2009. And she goes on to conclude that only women are victim of Domestic Violence and that 40% of married women suffer domestic violence.

The factual position lakhs of Husbands are victim of Domestic violence and cruelty from their wives. If we look at the data of family courts in different part of country then, lakhs of husbands all over India have got divorce from their wife under section 13(ia) i.e. divorce on the ground of cruelty. That is a clear indication that husbands are also victim of cruelty and domestic violence at the hands of their wives. The irony is that under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, only WOMEN can file complaint and there is no provision for MEN to file complaint under the said Act against their wife.

Under such circumstances the answer given by the Minister to the Lok Sabha is totally misleading, distortion and misrepresentation of facts. First of all Government has made no attempt to collect any kind of data regarding violence from WOMEN to MEN. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act has been enacted by the parliament assuming that only WOMEN can be victims of Domestic Violence which is totally misconceived.

When only WOMEN can file a complaint under the said Act and there is no provision for MEN to file a complaint then how the minister can come to the conclusion and project that 40% of the married WOMEN are suffering as if all husbands are happy and enjoying their life and harassing their wife? We are dejected by the insensitive, distorted and misrepresented statements by the said ministry.

Since the said ministry has relied on the NCRB data hence I would like to take this opportunity to bring out some factual position for your kind consideration. As per suicide data released by NCRB for the year 2009, 81471 MEN have committed suicide and for the same year 45680 WOMEN have committed suicide. i.e. every 6.45 minute a MEN is committing suicide whereas every 11.5 minute a WOMEN is committing suicide. So even as per NCRB data it is clear that it is MEN who needs protection than WOMEN.

 

In view of the above said discussion we demand following

• Kindly instruct the said ministry to take initiative to collect data regarding violence from WOMEN to MEN.
• Kindly instruct the said ministry to start process to amend the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act in such a way that MEN can also lodge complaint against WOMEN in case of Domestic violence.

 

We submit that our suggestions are just and reasonable and in the event of non implementation of our suggestions, we would be constrained to go to the streets with Dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests. Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!  With profound respects,

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

NFHS MEMO to PM Regarding misrepresentation of facts by Minister for WCD on “Protection of women from domestic violence act”

19^th Aug 2011/ Bangalore

To,

Honorable Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister’s Office,

Room No: 148 B,

South Block, New Delhi – 110001

 

Subject: Regarding misrepresentation of facts by Minister for WCD on “Protection of women from domestic violence act”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

We want to register our strong protest against the gross mis-representation of data by Union women and child development minister Krishna Tirath in the Lok Sabha on 19^th August2011. Kindly refer to the below news article.

 

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/184815/40-percent-married-women-face.html

As per this news, the minister has informed the Lok Sabha that a total of 5,788 cases were registered under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act in 2007, 5,643 cases in 2008 and 7,802 in 2009. And she goes on to conclude that only women are victim of Domestic Violence and that 40% of married women suffer domestic violence.

The factual position lakhs of Husbands are victim of Domestic violence and cruelty from their wives. If we look at the data of family courts in different part of country then, lakhs of husbands all over India have got divorce from their wife under section 13(ia) i.e. divorce on the ground of cruelty. That is a clear indication that husbands are also victim of cruelty and domestic violence at the hands of their wives. The irony is that under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, only WOMEN can file complaint and there is no provision for MEN to file complaint under the said Act against their wife.

Under such circumstances the answer given by the Minister to the Lok Sabha is totally misleading, distortion and misrepresentation of facts. First of all Government has made no attempt to collect any kind of data regarding violence from WOMEN to MEN. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act has been enacted by the parliament assuming that only WOMEN can be victims of Domestic Violence which is totally misconceived.

When only WOMEN can file a complaint under the said Act and there is no provision for MEN to file a complaint then how the minister can come to the conclusion and project that 40% of the married WOMEN are suffering as if all husbands are happy and enjoying their life and harassing their wife? We are dejected by the insensitive, distorted and misrepresented statements by the said ministry.

Since the said ministry has relied on the NCRB data hence I would like to take this opportunity to bring out some factual position for your kind consideration. As per suicide data released by NCRB for the year 2009, 81471 MEN have committed suicide and for the same year 45680 WOMEN have committed suicide. i.e. every 6.45 minute a MEN is committing suicide whereas every 11.5 minute a WOMEN is committing suicide. So even as per NCRB data it is clear that it is MEN who needs protection than WOMEN.

 

In view of the above said discussion we demand following

• Kindly instruct the said ministry to take initiative to collect data regarding violence from WOMEN to MEN.
• Kindly instruct the said ministry to start process to amend the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act in such a way that MEN can also lodge complaint against WOMEN in case of Domestic violence.

 

We submit that our suggestions are just and reasonable and in the event of non implementation of our suggestions, we would be constrained to go to the streets with Dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests. Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!  With profound respects,

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

Do you want a Lokpall Bill that excludes Judiciary ?.

http://www.facebook.com/questions/126352217460923/?qa_ref=sa

Please vote in large numbers as per you conscience….

Email protest to WCD minister regarding the proposed amendments to the DP Act

Kindly send email to krishnatirath@yahoo.in, fa.wcd@nic.in, jscw.wcd@nic.in, sadhana.rout@nic.in, ea.wcd@nic.in, preetim@nic.in, vivek.joshi@nic.in, sa.wcd@nic.in

Dear Madam

We have seen the below news article regarding the proposed amendments to the DP Act.

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/proposal-to-amend-the-dowry-prohibition-act-1961-ministry-of-women-and-child-development-05-august-2011/

Whearas you had been quoted as saying “No complaints/ representations alleging misuse of Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 have been received.”

This is not true. The correct position is thousands of husbands have committed suicide due to the heavy misuse of the above said Act. Our research shows that in almost 99.99 % of the FIR lodged in police station under section 498A , DP Act is also included.

So to say that DP Act is not misused but only 498A is misused is nothing but distortion and misrepresentation of the facts. Thousads of husband and their families have been petitioning the Government from many years to bring in changes to the section 498A and DP Act to prevent its heavy misuse.

It is also surprising to note that your ministry have initiated process to amend DP Act to prevent its misuse, whearas you say that it is not misused but on the other hand there is no proposal from your ministry to amend 498A which is heavily misused.

I request your ministry to check thousands of protest letters sent from various part of the country from several years regarding heavy misuse of DPAct and 498A. As per NCRB data every 7.2 minute one MEN is commiting suicide. Please initiate some concrete action to prevent misuse of the 498A, DV Act and DPAct before few more thousand husband commit suicide.

I would also bring to your kind attention and notice that “women empowerment” cannot be initiated at the cost of “MEN harassment”. As our Hon’ble president said once that both Gender should remain in peace and harmony rather than “Gender war”.

Kindly hear the pain, harassment of thousands of families who have been put in Jail simply on false allegation of daughterin-law.

Regards

Suresh P, 9880141531
President, National Family Harmony Society

NGO Website :http://498a.org.in/
NGO Website :http://family-harmony.org/

 

Letter Campaign to amend DV Act to prevent its heavy misuse and punish those who are misusing DV Act

Dear all, Government (WCD) is working out in the background to amend DV Act. Please the below link…

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/centre-moots-training-judges-for-domestic-violence-act2005/

This is the best time for all those who think that DV Act is misused to start writing their views, thoughts, suggestions and recommendations to the Government…

NFHS as usual has already written to the WCD its views and demands….Please see the below link…

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/nfhs-memo-to-wcdpmlaw-ministrypresidentcjinaclaw-commission-regarding-proposed-amendment-to-%e2%80%9cprotection-of-women-from-domestic-violence-act%e2%80%9d/

Why writing to the government is important???

Writing to the Government is very important else they will never come to know about the misuse. Letters received by the Government is the bench mark for them before they start any process of law amendment…

Please see the below link…..

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/government-looking-at-amending-dowry-act-says-krishna-tirath/

Where the minister says that….” The Minister said a large number of complaints and representations alleging misuse of the Act had been received”

It is clear that once they receive large number of complaints then they start the process of law amendment.

How to write to Government?

It is simpler than you thought…You can have a look at the NFHS Memo above. You necessarily need not write so many points. All you can do is write 2 or 3 pages with….

* Your experience…

* How it is misused…

* What changes you want…

Etc…

Your letter to government can have demands e.g.

* Remove protection officer in DV Act…He is always biased to Wife…

* No interim maintenance till allegations are proved…

* Dont accept DV Petition if already HMA25/CrPC 125 is pending…

* There should be a limit on the upper maintenance…

*

*

As usual kindly don’t reply to mails saying “this demand is not correct”…”That demand is correct”…”This is what we should demand”…”that we should not demand”!!

Because demanding in the yahoo group is not going to change the law…

Remember….Each letter sent to the Government matters…

I have written to Government already…Had YOU?

 

NFHS MEMO to WCD/PM/Law Ministry/President/CJI/NAC/Law Commission – Regarding proposed amendment to “Protection of women from domestic violence act”

7^th Aug 2011/ Bangalore

To,

Hon’ble Minister of Women and Child development

Ministry of Women & Child Development, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding proposed amendment to “Protection of women from domestic violence act”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Madam,

Recent media reports suggest that your ministry is planning amendments to the “Protection of women from domestic violence act” hereafter referred to as “Act”, which was passed by the parliament in 2005 with good intention to provide protection to women in domestic relationship.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110803/jsp/opinion/story_14326787.jsp

 

We would like to bring to your kind attention and notice that none other “Act” has gained so much notoriety as this “Act” in a short span of 6 years. The said Act is being heavily misused and abused by unscrupulous and greedy women with an intention to settle score with the estranged husband and his family. Protection and empowerment of women cannot be achieved by harassing husband and his family members. A study conducted by our NGO shows that the said “Act” is being heavily misused by estranged wives by leveling baseless, frivolous, vexatious and scandalous, allegations against husband in case of any matrimonial disputes just with an intention to get monetary benefits.

 

We believe that certain misandric elements, in the name of pseudo-empowerment of women are all out to destroy the Indian Family System and values with the active connivance of vested interests that are harboring a diabolic design and agenda to destroy our traditional institution of family. These elements are running berserk clamoring for more draconian enactments that are detrimental to the system of marriage and family in addition to the existing laws which are totally anti-men. Our country is already divided in the name of language, religion and geographic region. But these women-biased laws like “Act” are bringing in another dimension of division of our society in the name of gender.

 

The “Act”, was framed and legislated based on a myth and assumption that only women under go domestic violence. The parliament has not considered the fact the “softer-sex” i.e., Males are equally vulnerable to domestic violence in the hands of a female or another male. Numerous incidents of domestic violence on males covered by press & media, clearly showing the evidence of violence on males, have been ignored by the parliament. It is not appropriate to assume that all “married young women” in our country are Sita Devis. We should not forget that there are enough number of Surpanakas & Kaikeyis in our country. Numerous incidents of crime committed by women can be found in press & media coverage. Some of these media coverage can be witnessed from our website in the below link.

http://www.498a.org.in/nwsrm_prsRels.html

 

Anybody can be a victim of Domestic violence, including children, infants, teenagers and senior citizens. They can become victim at the hands of their own blood relatives including the mothers of the children and the sons & daughters-in-law of

the aged parents. Senior citizens are mostly abused by the daughters-in-law more so by the misuse of these women-biased laws. Even United Nations Organization has recognized that the misuse of IPC 498A or the “Dowry Law” is the biggest form of elder abuse in our country. Such senior citizens in their twilight years should be protected from domestic violence and abuse.

 

We wish to bring your notice that this law is being misused by many of the young, educated & greedy women with corrupt intentions to satisfy their greed, grudge & fantasies. This law becomes more lethal when misused along with the Dowry Law or IPC 498A. The case under Domestic Violence Act is usually filed just after an FIR

U/S 498A is registered for the same cause of action. The misuse of the “Act” is so rampant that many of the parliamentarians, courts, Chief justices of various High courts have expressed their concerns over the misuse of this Act.

 

Surprisingly, the said “Act” recognizes Live-in relationships. A man can have any number of Live-in relationships and similarly a woman can also have many Live-in relationships. This is nothing but a different concept of prostitution and nothing but polygamy. This issue needs in-depth deliberation to ensure that the “Act” does not cover live-in relationships. If live in relationship is recognized then that means that  we are promoting polygamy & adultery, thus making the sections 494 & 497 of Indian Penal Code as Un-constitutional.

 

When an estranged wife claims for the reliefs of Protection, Residence, Maintenance orders as per the existing “Act” and complains and claims for these reliefs, that itself shows that the marriage between husband and wife has broken down and the relationship between them is not cordial and that is why she has come forward to complain. In such a situation it is impossible to think that they can live together again. In such a case while providing reliefs to the woman, the husband should be granted automatic divorce decree order if he moves an application for the same at appropriate court.

 

The existing “Act” has been designed to provide protection to woman and not to harass the husband. In such a case husband should not be denied of his basic rights of being in a family, cohabiting with a woman and pass on his genes to the next generation, etc. Even those who are accused under much severe crimes like IPC 302 (murder) or IPC 307 (attempt to murder) will be given a liberty to live freely till he is proven guilty. Many of the accused people in the 1984 riots & Godhra riots are freely living while they are still undergoing their trials. Their basic rights of getting food cooked by their wives, having children with their wives are not being denied. In such a case why a husband accused under Protection of women from domestic violence Act should be punished and should be denied of his basic rights? Since the existing “Act” doesn’t have any punishments like not allowing husband to eat food or not allowing him to have sex, etc., the husband should be made eligible for an immediate automatic divorce decree if he moves an application for the same, so that his basic rights are not denied but fulfilled by any other woman who is happy to live with him along with the reliefs being fulfilled under this Act for the complainant wife. Not doing so results in violation of human rights of the husband.

 

The protection officer in the “Act” does not have any role in investigating the alleged domestic violence, it is only limited to writing down the false statements and filling the report as per the wishes of the wife’s advocate. It is mostly observed that the job of the PO is just to tick mark most of the rows in the DIR on the insistence of the wife. Even the Honorable Supreme Court of India in 14Feburary2010 observed that “in rape cases the testimony of the victim cannot be considered to be the gospel truth, though in normal circumstances her statement has to be relied upon.” So in general to avoid misuse no conclusion should be drawn into the PO report and interim maintenance should not be passed on PO report.

 

As there is no provision of punishment in the “Act” hence there is no fear in the mind of the litigants and they are indulging in leveling baseless and wild allegations against each other. This is deplorable and results in considerable delay of the proceedings. It has been observed that just to get maintenance wife normally puts wild and imaginary allegations even to the extent of extra martial affairs.

 

There is no bar on the amount of maintenance an estranged wife can claim under the “Act”. This leads to claiming of exorbitant amounts of maintenance to the tune of lakhs of rupees. Claiming exorbitant amounts of maintenance is nothing but misusing the provision which is meant to protect women. It is impossible to believe that with the current economic conditions prevailing in our country that a woman would need lakhs of rupees of money for basic necessities like food, cloth, and medicines. We have seen cases where the maintenance amounts have been claimed in the range of 25,000/-, 50,000/- to 200,000/- per month. Even the Honorable magistrates, Honorable High court judges and “Honorable members of parliament” are not getting that much amount of money as their salaries. Maintenance includes only the basic necessities i.e., food, cloth, medicines & shelter. In any city in our country these basic necessities will not cost thousands & lakhs of rupees per month. The magistrates are supposed to pass orders ONLY for these basic necessities and other house hold expenses which should never run into thousands of rupees as claimed in some cases. The Act itself mandates that the maintenance amounts should be fair, just & reasonable. But that is hardly followed.

 

Since mostly estranged wife complain of violence hence, in order to protect these women, the women should be mandatorily accommodated in Govt. sponsored Shelter Homes. The cost for the accommodation may be put on the accused/respondents. The cost will be for her maintenance as per the prevailing rates as declared by the Government.

 

 

In view of the above discussion and reasoning we demand following:

• We strongly request to make the said “Act” “gender-neutral” by providing protection to MEN as well.

 

• We sincerely request to increase the scope of the said Act beyond “young married women” to a cover a much larger section of victims irrespective of their age & gender.

 

• There is an urgent need to introduce a punishment clause in the “Act” in-line with section 387 to 389 of Indian Penal Code. A new clause should be introduced to protect the rights of the respondents by sufficiently compensating in case of false claim. The clause should also make a provision to return back any interim maintenance amount paid during the trial with 10% interest rate in case allegations are proved false.

 

• The parliament should clear the confusion on live-in-relation. It cannot take different stands on the same issue of polygamy. Therefore, we propose to remove live-in relationships from the context of this Act OR make sections 494 & 497 of Indian Penal Code as Un-constitutional.

 

• We suggest/recommend introducing a new clause for protecting the human rights of the accused husband.

 

• The role of a Protection officer is absolutely unnecessary and should be removed.

 

• The trial under this Act should be made in compliance to Indian Evidence Act rather than in compliance to Criminal Procedure Code.

 

• The magistrates shall ensure that interim orders are passed at the earliest and at the discretion of the officers and shall ensure the trial is not withheld over an indefinite period due to non-execution of interim orders.

 

• The magistrates shall order perjury and contempt proceedings in respect of exaggerated or false allegation in respect of domestic violence, cruelty when such allegations are proved to be false. And spouses making false allegations are to be punished.

 

• In order to stop misuse of this Act as a black mailing tool, we propose to do camera recording of the counseling/mediation done by the counselors if the accused/respondents wishes so. The counselor has to give the certified copy of this recoding to the complainant woman, accused/respondents and magistrate.

 

• In order to protect these women, the women should be mandatorily accommodated in Govt. sponsored Shelter Homes. The cost for the accommodation may be put on the accused/respondents. The cost will be for her maintenance as per the prevailing rates as declared by the Government.

 

We submit that our suggestions are just and reasonable and in the event of non implementation of our suggestions, we would be constrained to go to the streets with Dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests. Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!  With profound respects,

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                          9731569970

Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

5^th Aug 2011

Bangalore

To,

Hon’ble Chief Justice of Karnataka

High Court Buildings,

High Court of Karnataka,

Bangalore – 560001

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

We are sure that the, you must be concerned about the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 40% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

5^th Aug 2011

Bangalore

To,

The Honorable Chief Justice of India,

Supreme Court of India,

Tilak Marg, New Delhi-110 001 (India)

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

We are sure that the, you must be concerned about the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 40% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

5^th Aug 2011

Bangalore

To,

Chairman,

Shri Justice P V Reddi
Law Commission of India,
The Indian Law Institute Building
(Opp. to Supreme Court), Bhagwandas Road,  New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

We are sure that the, you must be concerned about the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 50% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

5^th Aug 2011

Bangalore

To,

Smt Sonia Gandhi,

Chairperson,

National Advisory Council

New Delhi

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Madam,

 

We are sure that the, you must be concerned about the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 50% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

5^th Aug 2011

Bangalore

To,

Honorable Prime Minister of India,

Prime Minister’s Office, Room No: 148 B, South Block, New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

We are sure that the, you must be concerned about the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 50% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

5^th Aug 2011

Bangalore

To,

Honorable President of India,

President’s Office, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi – 110011

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Hon’ble Madam,

 

We are sure that the, you must be concerned about the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 50% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                     9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

NFHS Memo to Law Minister on arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

28^th July 2011

Bangalore

To,

Hon’ble Minister for Law & Justice,

Ministry of Law and Justice,

4th Floor, A-Wing,                                                                                     Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi – 110 001

Subject: Regarding arbitrary, exorbitant and high maintenance amount awarded by Courts and harassment to husband and his family members in the name of “protection of women”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

 

Even though you had assumed the charge of Law Minister recently but the high rate of Divorce and breaking of families must be known to you. We have been relentlessly petitioning Government from many years citing various reasons for this trend and have been organizing protests, dharna and procession etc from time to time. But we have not been able to get any concrete proposal from Government to stop the breaking of families.

 

Alarmed by another disturbing trend in the recent times which can have serious implication in the society, we are writing this petition to you in the hope that concrete steps will be taken in this regard. The trend is the tendency of the courts to pass very high, excessive, exorbitant and unreasonable amount of maintenance awarded to estranged wife in case of matrimonial disputes.

 

There have been media reports in recent times that amount of 40000/- per month and 40 lakhs etc are being awarded as maintenance amount citing the status of wife, earning capacity of husband etc. While not many will dispute to give reasonable maintenance to wife but at the same time it seems that these orders are being passed as there is no bar on the higher side of maintenance in Law. While most of the discussion in court orders revolve around a reasonable amount of maintenance but there seems to be no clarity, consensus or agreement in the Judiciary on this as can be seen from a widely contrasting orders from different courts.

 

In our NGO, we have come across a case where a husband has been ordered to pay around 50% of his salary. While everyone seems to be emotionally and heavily biased towards wife, conveniently forgetting that a husband also has aged old parents and could have siblings like brothers and sisters whose marriage and education he needs to support. A broken marriage is not a crime but the Gender biased laws of this country makes sure that in case of matrimonial dispute a husband and all his family members are sent to Jail merely on the allegation of wife, thanks to heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

Coming to the issue of maintenance, passing of 30%, 40% maintenance against husband is nothing but absurd and injustice to husband and his family members. Even if we do a simple calculation and look at our own families, we can easily calculate how much a person needs per month for his/her survival. Just to stress this point with an example, if a person has wife and a child and age old parent and one brother and one sister then his income needs to be divided into 7 parts atleast as son is the main bread earner when parent grow old. It is a matter of common knowledge that a person does not spend everything and saves as much as possible for a rainy day. And also Just because a person has married does not absolve him from taking care of his parent and siblings. Considering all this 1/10^th of a person’s monthly take home salary seems to be reasonable amount of maintenance provided the estranged wife is illiterate and handicapped. If an estranged wife is well qualified and well bodied then her maintenance claim should be rejected outright.

 

While passing maintenance most of the time the standard phrase is “Husband is well bodied”. Well that is true for women also. Also most of the time maintenance is passed citing the status of the couple. Well a husband might had married a women who is from poor family and husband might be in good financial position and assuming that marriage lasted only for couple of months, can the wife be awarded maintenance on the changed status? It is absurd even to think of that because a significant portion of her life she spent in poor financial status.

 

While in matrimonial dispute, it seems most of the court orders related to maintenance seems to be passed emotionally rather than as per Law, we should not forgot that a husband also has mother and sister who are also women and whom he needs to support. In fact mother will be aged and in need of financial assistance for her medical needs.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention to another important issue which is in dire need of reforms by the Parliament and that issue is of “Multiple maintenance” or in other words “Duplication of Law”. There are more than five sections in Law which enables an estranged wife to claim maintenance from her husband in case of matrimonial dispute. They are Domestic Violence Act, CrPC 125, HMA24, HMA25 and HAMA18. It has become a trend by estranged wife to file all possible section against husband in order to harass him and to extract maximum maintenance.

 

We would also like to invite your kind attention that “women empowerment” cannot be achieved by “harassing husband” and his family members. “Women empowerment” can be achieved only by making them educated, self reliant and making them skillfully employed. What will happen to women if she is receiving 40000/- per month maintenance and then her Ex-husband dies after few years. Such women will virtually come on road as she is neither employed nor can seek employment without any experience.

 

In view of above discussion and reasoning, we demand following

 

• Mandate Law Commission of India to study how various maintenance laws can be simplified into one law so that it will benefit both wife and husband in case of matrimonial disputes and also it will bring pendency of court cases significantly.

 

• Amend current maintenance laws to put a cap of not more than 1/10^th take home salary per month.

 

• Maintenance should not be given to educated, working, well bodied or adulterous wife

 

• No maintenance should be given to wife if husband gets acquittal in 498A IPC or any criminal case initiated by wife.

 

• Number of years elapsed in marriage should be a critical factor in deciding maintenance as there are series of cases where even after few days of marriage wife has put maintenances cases.

 

• When considering status of wife, while deciding maintenance, more weightage should be given to the status of wife before marriage.

 

• Wife should not be allowed to put two or more maintenance cases.  Once she prefers a forum for filing maintenance case, others forum should not accept her petition.

 

• Maintenance should be granted for the purpose to maintain decent life style and not for luxury.

 

• Tendency to pass high maintenance in the form of interim maintenance should be stopped as the charges/allegations are not proved at that stage.

 

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and in the event of non-implementation of our demands, we would be constrained to go to the streets with dharnas, Public Fasting and resort to other democratic means of protests.

 

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                          9731569970

National Family Harmony Society              National Family Harmony Society

NFHS Post card Campaign 24-07-2011 on Misuse of Domestic Violence Act

Some Text you can use for the Post Card Campaign in DV act

Some Text you can use for the Post Card Campaign

 

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I object to the protection given only to “Women” in DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act). The wordings are such that only “young married wife” can claim protection and relief. I strongly request to make DV Act “gender-neutral” by providing protection to MEN and his family as well.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I object that the DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) has been designed only to provide protection to “married young women”. I sincerely request to increase the scope of the said Act beyond “young married women” to a cover a much larger section of victims irrespective of their age & gender.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

The Protection of women from domestic violence Act is one of the most misused laws in our country apart from IPC 498[A]. There is an urgent need to introduce a punishment clause in the Protection of women from domestic violence Act in-line with section 387 to 389 of Indian Penal Code. A new clause should be introduced to protect the rights of the accused by sufficiently compensating the accused.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

Live-in relationships are like organized prostitution. If we don’t discourage live-in relationships then we will end up promoting polygamy which is not permitted as per law. The parliament should clear this confusion. It cannot take different stands on the same issue of polygamy.  Therefore, I propose to remove live-in relationships from the context of DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) OR make sections 494 & 497 of Indian Penal Code as Un-constitutional.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

On mere application of common sense one can conclude that a woman who is claiming domestic violence by her husband cannot be presumed to live with him any longer. Therefore, I suggest/recommend introducing a new clause in DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) for protecting the human rights of the accused husband.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

The Protection officer’s role in DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) is to only record the Domestic Incident report without any verification or collection of proof. Often this is done after filing the application to the Magistrate and only for the sake of process, nothing more than that. The role of a Protection officer is absolutely unnecessary and should be removed.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

Because of the rampant misuse of the Protection of women from domestic violence Act the sole testimony of the woman cannot be taken as a sole witness or as occurrence of violence. The trial under this Act should be made in compliance to Indian Evidence Act rather than in compliance to Criminal Procedure Code.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I object to the delay on the main case proceedings in DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) due to the delay on passing of orders on the interim applications. The magistrates shall ensure that interim orders are passed at the earliest and at the discretion of the officers and shall ensure the trial is not withheld over an indefinite period due to non-execution of interim orders.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I object that due to various loopholes in the DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) the spouses are trading wild and false allegations at each other. The magistrates shall order perjury and contempt proceedings in respect of exaggerated or false allegation in respect of domestic violence, cruelty when such allegations are proved to be false.  And spouses making false allegations are to be punished. 

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I object to the way false cases are being filed in the court without any fear. In order to stop the misuse of DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) as a black mailing tool, I propose to add severe punishment to those who misuse.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I object to the way false cases under DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) are being filed in the court without any fear. I feel that courts of this country are nothing but temple of justice but unfortunately there is a flood of petitions in front of the courts most of which are false and are being filed with ulterior motives. In order to stop the misuse of this Act as a black mailing tool, we propose to add the following two statements into the Form-II:

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

I strongly deplore to the use of the DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act) being used as a blackmail tool. In order to stop this particular misuse of this Act as a black mailing tool, I propose to do camera recording of the counselling/mediation done by the counsellors if the accused/respondents wishes so. The charge for these proceedings can be put on the accused/respondents.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

Shelter homes must be provided for the affected victims in DV Act (Protection of women from domestic violence act). When a woman undergoes domestic violence it may not be possible for her to continue to live with the accused/respondent. So, in order to protect these women, the women should be mandatorily accommodated in Govt. sponsored Shelter Homes. The cost for the accommodation may be put on the accused/respondents. The cost will be for her maintenance as per the prevailing rates as declared by the Government.

<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>()<>

 

 

 

 

 

Print Labels for from and to address for A4 sheet

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NFHS Postcard Campaign on 17-07-2011 to New Union Law Minister on DV Act and 498A

https://picasaweb.google.com/117609073144184200949/NFHSPostcardCampaignOn17072011ToNewUnionLawMinisterOnDVActAnd498A?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJfjyJjF-42gowE&feat=directlink

NFHS and other NGO members who deposed before Rajya Sabha commitee of petions to suggest ammendments in 498A IPC

NFHS and other NGO members who deposed before

Rajya Sabha commitee of petions to suggest

ammendments in 498A IPC

The WALL of 498A will crumble soon!!!

Post card campaign to protest against Law Commission reccomendation to make 498A Compoundable

Thanks to all NFHS members who joined and participated today for the post card campaign…
 
NFHS posted total 52 post cards today to law commission…
 
Sending postcards is very easy if labels are used for address…
 
We are very sure that other local chapters are also protesting by the way of letters/postcards and other means….
 
https://picasaweb.google.com/117609073144184200949/10072011NFHSBangalorePostcardCampaignAgainstLawCommissionReccomendationToMake498ACompo?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHf–XpipuWGA

498A Group on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/groups/216895415013287?ap=1

http://www.facebook.com/groups/216895415013287?ap=1#!/pages/498A-misuse/175539219140962

Strongly worded petition by NFHS to Law Commission, on the reccomendation to make 498A IPC compoundable

07^th July 2011 / Bangalore

To,

Chairman, Shri Justice P V Reddi
Law Commission of India,
The Indian Law Institute Building
(Opp. to Supreme Court), Bhagwandas Road, 

New Delhi – 110001

Subject: Strong protest by “National Family Harmony Society®” on the recommendation of the Law Commission to make 498A IPC compoundable

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16000 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.

There have been media reports recently which have indicated the intention of the Law Commission to make 498A IPC compoundable. This will further accelerate the breaking of families and give further encouragement to the greedy wives to file false cases.

A criminal case, and that too of the nature of an offence which deals with cruelty must not be compounded at any cost. If husband and his family members have done crime then they must be tried under the criminal justice system. If 498A IPC is allowed to be compounded then it will be mockery of the criminal justice system. In that case if any dispute arises between husband and wife due to whatever reason, 498A will be used to blackmail, threaten and for money extortion.

It is also surprising that before initiating discussion on such an important topic, Law commission has not given any News Paper advertisement as is done by Parliament Sub-Committees and our NGO came to know about the Law Commission initiative only by media articles.

Through media article, we also came to know that Law Commission has selectively invited suggestions from certain quarters. There are hundreds of NGOs like ours, who are working from many years to bring effective amendments to 498A IPC due to its heavy abuse and misuse. It seems none of the group or NGO has been invited for oral pleadings as is the common practice in law making/amendment process.

The heavy misuse and abuse of the 498A IPC is an open secret with hundreds of question being raised in parliament and hundreds of Judgment from Judiciary. We fail to understand that by making 498A IPC compoundable, how the misuse and abuse of 498A IPC will be prevented.

Thousands of families who had been falsely implicated by using this IPC section were hopeful and had great expectation that Law Commission will make some concrete suggestion to the government to stop the misuse of this Law. Thousands of husbands have committed suicide as they were falsely implicated in this Law but it seems that Law Commission is not able to see the agony, harassment and torture of these families.

Left with no other option, our NGO did protest by the way of “black flag” Dharna at Bangalore on 2^nd of July which received wide media coverage and hundreds of calls/enquiries from various quarters. All the media coverage has been compiled at below location for your kind persual.

NFHS Press Coverage: Flash Dharna against Law Commission reccomendation tp make 498A compoundable

In response to the Law Commission’s earlier questionnaire, NFHS had sent following answer regarding question 8.

8)          Do you think that the offence should be made compoundable (with the permission of court)? Are there any particular reasons not to make it compoundable?

Once a complaint is registered then the complainant should not have the option to withdraw it. If the complainant is allowed to withdraw the complaint then it amounts to blackmailing. Anyone with intention to extract money from husband will file complaint in police station and withdraw later when her demands are met. 498A must not be allowed to be used as a blackmail tool. Hence we strongly oppose to make it compoundable.

 

In view of the above discussion and reasons we strongly mark our protest to make 498A IPC compoundable and we will use all democratic means of protest so that efforts can be made to stop the heavy misuse and abuse of the 498A IPC which has been termed as Legal Terror by the Supreme Court.

With profound respects, Jai Hind !!!

P Suresh, President,  9880141531                                                    

National Family Harmony Society

Flash Dharna on Saturday @Town Hall, Bangalore to protest Law Commission reccomendation

NFHS is organizing Flash Dharna to protest Law Commission reccomendation to make 498A IPC compoundable which will increase Legal Extortion and Legal Terror.

If Criminal cases are allowed to be compounded then only rich and mighty people will compound their cases and there will be no fear of commiting crime.

This will become a mockery of Criminal Justice System.

E.g. a person can do murder and offer “settlement amount” to his relatives.

Venue: Town Hall, Bangalore

Timing: 9.30 AM to 11 AM coming saturday – 2nd July

More details will follow….

Please spread this email like fire as we have very less time...

NFHS has been invited for oral deposition to the commitee for 498A amendment

No. RS. 6(69)/2008 – Com.II 22^nd June, 2011

Shri P. Suresh,

President, National Family Harmony Society,

H-102, Raj Nagar-II,

Palam Colony,

New Delhi-77

Sub: Petition praying for amendments in Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Sir,

I am directed to state that the Committee on Petitions of Rajya Sabha which is examining the captioned petition, has decided to have the benefit of your views in response to your Memorandum on the petition in its meeting to be held on Wednesday, the 29^th June, 2011 in Main Committee Room, Ground Floor, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi. I am, therefore, to request you kindly to make it convenient to appear before the Committee at 11.00 a.m. on the above noted date and venue for the purpose. You may bring with you one person for assistance during the presentation. Subject to other individuals/organizations (who have also been invited) actually appearing before the Committee, one organization/individual may get around 10 minutes for making the presentation.

2. A line in confirmation of your appearance before the Committee may be sent to the undersigned at the earliest.

3. A copy each of the petition and the list of Members of the Committee on Petitions is enclosed.

Yours faithfully,

(GOUTAM KUMAR)

COMMITTEE OFFICER

Tel: 23034537

Telefax: 23794328

E-mail: rsc2pet@sansad.nic.in

NFHS MEMO to CJ Seeking justice for Fathers and Children separated due to marital discords on the eve of Father’s Day

To                                                                                               17th June 2011

Hon’ble Chief Justice

High Court of Karnataka

 

Subject: Seeking justice for Fathers and Children separated due to marital discords

 

Hon’ble Chief Justice,

 

We seek your personal and valuable intervention in setting right the gross injustice being done to men and children in matters of matrimonial conflicts where custody of children is granted only to women, with total disregard to the love and affection that fathers and children have towards each other.

 

Fathers are denied custody as a rule rather than an exception. If at all visitation is ordered to fathers, it is limited to 30 min or 1 hour in a month contrary to the requirement of the UN resolution that no child should be denied access to either of the parents.

 

We are constrained to bring to your notice that Indian Family Courts appear to have declared a war against fathers and are adopting every possible means to create a “fatherless society” and to reduce men to mere ATM machines and sperm donors.

 

Family Courts have adopted the unhealthy practice of

 

• ·         Depriving fathers of the right to love and care for their biological children.
• ·         Forcing fathers to pay huge sums of money to support children they are not allowed to see.         
• ·         Encouraging false allegations of abuse to paint fathers as unfit parents.
• ·         Permitting multiple legal battles to eliminate biological fathers from their children’s lives.
• ·         Passing ex-parte orders based solely on the allegations made by a child’s mother.
• ·         Allowing mothers to brazenly disobey visitation orders without legal repercussions to them.
• ·         Allowing biological fathers to be labelled “kidnappers” for trying to make contact with their own children.
• ·         Prolonging custody/visitation matters for years, thereby driving fathers into financial and emotional bankruptcy and forcing them to give up the desire to see their children.

Cases filed in Family Courts linger on indefinitely while wives enjoy full custody of children, interim maintenance and child support at the expense of husbands.

 

The attitude of the Family Courts in the matters of ordering child custody/visitation, maintenance and alimony is completely biased against husbands.

 

While there is much emphasis on a wife’s rights on husbands and children, no order is passed on the responsibilities of a wife towards herself and her matrimonial family. Husbands, on the other hand, are heaped with disproportionate responsibilities with no rights over their wives or children.

 

The brazenly anti-male mindset of Indian Family Courts is making it a crime to be born male in India. The continued onslaught on men and manhood is gradually destroying the faith of men on the system of marriage and societal values as a whole. As a result many men are being forced to commit suicide or shun marriage altogether paving the way for a fatherless society full of single mothers in the future.

 

We request the Hon’ble Chief Justice to ponder over these issues and contribute towards promoting a congenial atmosphere in the Family Courts for men, women and children.

 

On the occasion of Fathers’ Day, we wish to make the following demands:

 

Reforms in Mediation Counseling and Pleadings:

1. 1.   The presence of and pleadings by Advocates in the Family Court and mediation process should be eliminated as mandated by the Family Courts Act.
2. 2.   Persons who are professionally qualified and have a balanced perspective on family and society should be appointed as counsellors and mediators.
3. 3.   Counsellors and mediators should be adequately compensated fixing a rate of at least Rs. 20,000 per case, made payable by the spouses equally.
4. 4.   Mediators should be given exclusive powers to decide on dates and adjournments and should be required to conduct mediations and counselling throughout the year without holidays.
5. 5.   No in-camera and chamber proceedings should be held unless absolutely necessary and the purpose duly recorded in the Court register.

 

Perjury

1. 1.   Courts should order perjury and contempt proceedings in case of exaggerated statements and false allegations or affidavits related to employment, earnings, cruelty etc. when such allegations are proved to be false.
2. 2.   Spouses making false allegations should be punished under the appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code.

 

Child Custody matters:

Family Courts should ensure that both parents are given equal custody of children irrespective of the accusations of either party (such as a mother being adulterous or a father being a drunkard). The practice of showing children for 30 minutes or 1 hour like a TV show to a father without providing him an opportunity to demonstrate his fatherly care and affection should be done away with. We strongly denounce the attitude of the Family Courts which consider children as the exclusive property of the wife and totally deny access to the husband and his family while passing interim and final orders.

 

We strongly condemn the belief of the Family Courts that the husband alone is bound to earn and maintain his wife and children, even though the wife is either earning or sufficiently qualified to earn.

 

The practice of passing orders for monetary compensation, should be done away with and instead, parents should be directed to share the responsibilities like buying medical insurance, pay the school fee, purchase clothes, books etc., for children based on their respective and combined financial capacities.

The following steps should be immediately taken by Family Courts across the country to uphold the rights of fathers and ensure the welfare of children:

• ·         Special fast-track courts should be set up at the earliest to deal with custody issues.
• ·         Exclusive, fully functioning Divisional Bench should be set up in all High Courts and Supreme Court to hear appeals in matters of child custody.
• ·         When a person or couple approaches court for divorce, counseling of the parents by professional counselors should be given first priority.
• ·         Except in extreme cases of violence or unhealthy behavior by either partner, children should be given equal and meaningful access to both parents and grandparents on both sides.
• ·         Both parents should be given financial responsibility of the child proportionate to their earnings and not based on demands made by either partner.
• ·         If a partner prevents a child from having equal and meaningful contact with the other partner, they should be counseled first to understand the importance of equal parenting and the best interest of a child.
• ·         If either partner repeatedly disobeys orders of equal access and meaningful contact with children, then the children should be placed in the full custody of the partner who will allow equal access to the other parent.

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and that the non-implementation of our demands will result in serious consequences to men, women, children, families and the society as a whole.

 

We enclose, herewith, the petitions signed by hundreds of fathers in the Family Courts in Bangalore. We look forward to your prompt intervention and necessary action in this regard.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

 

Suresh P                                                                                   Mahesh M

President,                                                                                  General Secretary

9880141531                                                                           9731569970

NFHS members discussing future stratergy to defeat Legal Terror

NFHS meets Law Minister Shri Veerapa Moily with demand to make DV Act Gender Neutral

Around 15 National Family Harmony Society Members today met Union Law Minister Shri Veerappa Moily and handed a MEMO regarding heavy misuse of DV Act and harassment to husband and his family.

Jagadish Sir: Spoke about harassment to senior citizens in old age.

Altaf Sir: spoke about senior citizens being harassed in the name of protection to women.

Arnab: Spoke from legal point of view that even though article 15(3) provides laws can be made for women but as per article 15, discrimination cannot happen. Also which is the ministry for MEN welfare!!!

Suresh:  Spoke about heavy misuse of DV Act and how the harassed members have outnumbered genuine victims. Also demands of National Family Harmony Society. How grabbing of property is going on in the name of Domestic violence act. Also there are 5 laws of maintenance and women file all 5 cases and husband has to run around court. They are heavily misusing laws. Also demanded to make DV Act Gender Neutral and to plug in scope of misuse. Also explained him there is no provisions for husbands who are victim of even physical violence.

Madhu: Spoke that in case of Child Custody cases only mothers are being given custody.

So all in all it was a good effort by NFHS and at short notice 15 members came….Thanks to all members who reached at short notice for the cause.

After listening to us for about 15 minutes Minister told he is completely aware of the misuse of these laws but he cannot take a completely extreme view on either side. He told he is already looking into issues of misuse. We also showed him todya’s Udaya Vani article and he again told  a balanced view needs to be take. He spoke for about five minutes saying that these laws are made for the protection of women but he agreed that misuse has to be taken seriously and a solution has to be found fo that. To my argument  that people who are being harassed due to these laws have outnembered those who are victims he simply disagreed and told that is not correct but again he told that he is aware of misuse.

 

 

MEMO Submitted to Law Minister

 

To:                                                                                          Bangalore / 10-Jun-2011
Hon’able Mr. Veerappa Moily, Hon’ble Minister of Law & Justice,
Ministry of Law and Justice, 4th Floor,
A-Wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi – 110 001
Subject: Regarding heavy misuse of Domestic Violence Act                              
About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 14500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.
Dear Sir,
1. That “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005” [hereafter referred to as the “Act” for the sake of brevity] was passed by parliament as Act No. 43 OF 2005 on 13th September, 2005 to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

2. That subsequent to passing of the above said “Act” there is seemingly increasingly heavy misuse of the “Act” similar to the heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

3. That the parliament has passed this “Act” with good intention to provide speedy relief to the women who are victims of “Domestic violence” but as has been seen in the recent past that this “Act” has become a tool at the hands of greedy women to use it to harass their husbands and his family members in case of matrimonial disputes.

4. That there is an urgent and immediate need to address the issues related to the abuse and heavy misuse of the said “Act” which is breaking the families and since the family is the basic unit of the society and hence there are tremors and crack already appearing on the society.

a. The “Act” is providing relief only to the “young married women” contrary to the intention of the parliament. The result is “young married women” at the drop the hat are rushing to the courts with petitions and implicating the entire family members of husband by misusing the said “Act”.

b. The “Act” is being misused by many of the young, educated & intelligent women with corrupt intentions to satisfy their greed, grudge & fantasies. This law becomes more lethal when misused along with the Dowry Law or IPC 498A. The case under “Act” is usually filed just after an FIR U/S 498A of IPC is registered for the same cause of action.

c. When there is a dispute between the spouses and when the wife files a criminal cases like Dowry Harassment (IPC 498A) against the husband, it becomes impossible for him to continue to live with the wife. And if the wife claims for Right to residence in his house under this “Act”, then husband has to vacate the house along with his aged parent, as it is impractical to even think that husband and his wife can stay under the same roof that too when the criminal cases are pending. This leads to an unbearable harassment to the husband and his age old parent. Punishing him before beginning the trail is violation of his constitutional rights. In some cases the husbands will be re-paying their house loans, but because of the residence orders husband and his parent will be staying outside their houses in spite of paying for house loans, causing a great burden and hardship to them.

d. If the husband / his parents live in the shared house they have to face harassment of police / face multiple other criminal cases as per the wish of wife’s lawyer. So invariably husband and his old parents have to run away, sometimes without belongings and stay in a rented accommodation.

e. The wife can get an order prohibiting the husband from operating his own bank accounts including his salary accounts, making it impossible for him to live. In one case, wife first used 498A to send the husband & her mother-in-law to jail. As soon as they were released on bail, wife used “Act” to lock all their bank accounts & properties including the husband’s salary account. When they went home, they were beaten up by the wife & her kin and the husband & the mother-in-law were thrown out of their own house, thus making them penniless and homeless. This is how women are misusing this “Act” resulting in violation of basic rights of the innocent husbands & aged in-laws. Even in the cases of Dowry death the husband will get a chance to prove not guilty, but this “Act” first punishes the husband and then gives the husband the chance to prove not guilty.

f. The wife can get an order prohibiting the husband from entering the shared household. This resulting in, he being thrown out of his own house without any cause. This “Act” enables the wife to capture the house of the husband and in-laws and throw them out. In many of the cases it has been observed that some women acting like goons misuse this “Act” to capture the hard-earned properties of the husband and in-laws, denying their basic rights. Once the wife gets the control over the property she can use that to accommodate her kin or bring-in her boy-friends.

g. Wife can file multiple maintenance suits for the same relief, one under this “Act” and another under Cr.P.C 125 or any other provision available just to harass the husband by making him run around different courts. This concept of misusing multiple maintenance provisions has gone beyond bearable limits. There are numerous complaints from victims and this has prompted us file a Public Interest Litigation, in Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka with Writ Pet. No. 9168/10.

h. Though this “Act” restricts the maintenance amount to be fair & reasonable, the Hon’ble magistrates in various courts are hardly giving attention to this clause. In a hurry to provide justice to the women they are passing meaningless orders with exorbitant amounts as maintenance without any justification. The high amounts of maintenance passed by the magistrates are being misused by the estranged wives for enrichment and luxury.

i. Some wives gets ex-party orders to get her belongings and come with police protection and take away all the evidences, photos, bank accounts, property documents, gold, cash, credit cards, everything what she knows and what her lawyer suggests along with important house hold items.

j. Since this “Act” assumes that whatever the women says as true, is highly vulnerable to misuse.

k. The misuse of the “Act” is so rampant that many of the parliamentarians, courts, Chief justices of various High courts have expressed their concerns over the misuse.

l. Many women are using the “Act” to settle score with husbands and to capture his properties.

m. There are instances of misuse where women had invoked the “Act” just after few days after the marriage as it was pre planed to misuse.

n. There are instances where the petitioner is well educated and capable of working and earning and in many cases working but in order to harass the husbands they resign from their jobs and invoke this “Act”.

o. The misuse is so wide and rampant that even though any order under the said “Act” is enforceable only against husband but in order to harass petitioner adds all the family members of the husband as respondent.

5. Delhi High Court in a case related to the “Act” on 13-08-2010 observed that “I therefore consider that the application filed by the petitioner under Section 12 of Domestic Violence Act was not at all maintainable. The petitioner had settled her separate house in America, her Passport was issued in America, she is doing job in America, she was adult and able to take care of herself, take her own decisions. She decided to live in America after leaving her parents here. If she has any right in her father’s property, she has already filed a suit for partition. An application under Section 12 of Domestic Violence Act was nothing but a gross misuse of the Act and I consider that she was rightly denied the interim relief of residence in the property left by her father. The petition is hereby dismissed.”

6. Even the Hon’ble Supreme court in Batra VS Batra observed that the “Act” has been drafted poorly. Terming the definition of ‘shared household’ in Section 2(s) of the Act as “not very happily worded”, the Bench said it “appears to be the result of clumsy drafting, but we have to give it an interpretation which is sensible and does not lead to chaos in society,”

7. This “Act” does not provide any provision or mechanism of punishment to the petitioners who misuse the “Act” which causes to the respondents.

a. Severe damage in the society as they are branded as “wife beaters” and “dowry seekers”.

b. Loss of jobs due to filing of false case under the “Act”.

c. Bad and defamatory publication in media and loss of reputation.

d. Financial loss due to false cases.

e. Harassment to the old parent of respondents due to running around court due to false cases.

f. Prospectus of sisters of husbands not getting married due to false complaint.

8. That the petitioner prays to amend this “Act” which is being heavily misused by thousands of women across India to settle score with husbands and due to which thousands of families are breaking. It is therefore respectfully prayed to amend the “Act” to include below suggestions.

a. To make the said “Act” “gender-neutral” by providing protection to MEN as well.

b. To increase the scope of the said “Act” beyond “young married women” to a cover a much larger section of victims irrespective of their age & gender.

c. To introduce a punishment clause in the “Act” in-line with section 387 to 389 of Indian Penal Code. A new rule should be introduced to protect the rights of the accused by sufficiently compensating the accused.

d. To add a new clause for protecting the human rights of the respondent husband.

e. To remove the role of Protection officer.

f. To make the trial under this “Act” in compliance to Indian Evidence Act rather than in compliance to Criminal Procedure Code.

g. To empower magistrates to order Suo Moto perjury and contempt proceedings in respect of exaggerated or false allegation in respect of domestic violence, cruelty when such allegations are proved to be false.

h. To make time bound conclusion of trial in 60 days.

i. To do away the practice of passing high Ex-Parte/Interim maintenance under this “Act” even when there no prima facie evidence to prove Domestic Violence.

j. To not consider “sole testimony” of women as gospel truth.

P Suresh, President,                                                      M Mahesh, General Secretary

Massive Procession Cum Dharna by NFHS on 4th June to protest heavy misuse of DV Act

MASSIVE PROCESSION CONCLUDED BY DHARNA 

ON 04-06-2011 – BANGALORE

 

Links of the picture:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106800572805314189823

https://picasaweb.google.com/117609073144184200949/MassiveProcessionCumDharnaAgainstDVAct?authkey=Gv1sRgCI_Qtce0n-Cc_gE#

 

PROCESSION CONCLUDED BY DHARNA on 04-06-2011 by National Family Harmony Society® to protest against heavy misuse of Domestic Violence Act.

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 16000 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in / https://498amisuse.wordpress.com

 

Details of the Event

Procession starting at Town Hall @9.30 AM

Procession concluding at Banappa Park @10.15 AM

Dharna at Banappa Park 10.15 AM – 12.00 Noon

We request all members who participate in the procession to maintain discipline.

Kindly reach the start point of the procession on time so that there is good strength for procession.

The procession is a “silent protest” and there will be no slogan shouting.

However at the Dharna we are free to shout slogans.

To protest against the injustice by the Government we plan to tie black ribbon around mouth to symbolic show that MEN facing injustice are not even being allowed to speak out.

The Theme of the protest is Gandhi Ji’s 3 Monkeys!!

Judiciary – They are turning a blind eye to the injustice, saying they are law implementers and not law makers.

Legislature– Fearing from women vote bank, Legislature is not speaking out even though they know that Gender biased law’s are heavily misused.

Executive– The executive turn away MEN and do not listen to MEN saying “Do not involve us in this and solve your problem in the court”

So, the question is where do MEN GO???

If the 3 main pillars of the democracy have shut their doors on the MEN then we have hope only from the fourth pillar of the democracy i.e. Media.

We appeal all our media friends to help us to spread awareness regarding heavy misuse of the gender biased laws and injustice caused to MEN and his families due to this.

Please save the family and thereby save our great Nation to retain India a “Vasudeva Kutumbaham”.

Jai Hind!!

With profound respects,

For further information please contact.

Suresh P                                                                                              Mahesh M

President,                                                                                            General Secretary

9880141531                                                                                                 9731569970

 

A petition under Rule 137 on DV Act misuse to Rajya Sabha

PDF Version ——–> Rajya_Sabha_Petition_DV

Bangalore / 09-May-2011

To:

The Council of States (Rajya Sabha)

The petition of Shri P Suresh an Engineer and a resident of Bangalore, Karnataka

Sheweth,

1. That “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005” [hereafter referred to as the “Act” for the sake of brevity] was passed by parliament as Act No. 43 OF 2005 on 13th September, 2005 to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

2. That subsequent to passing of the above said “Act” there is seemingly increasingly heavy misuse of the “Act” similar to the heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

3. That the parliament has passed this “Act” with good intention to provide speedy relief to the women who are victims of “Domestic violence” but as has been seen in the recent past that this “Act” has become a tool at the hands of greedy women to use it to harass their husbands and his family members in case of matrimonial disputes.

4. That there is an urgent and immediate need to address the issues related to the abuse and heavy misuse of the said “Act” which is breaking the families and since the family is the basic unit of the society and hence there are tremors and crack already appearing on the society.

a. The “Act” is providing relief only to the “young married women” contrary to the intention of the parliament. The result is “young married women” at the drop the hat are rushing to the courts with petitions and implicating the entire family members of husband by misusing the said “Act”.

b. The “Act” is being misused by many of the young, educated & intelligent women with corrupt intentions to satisfy their greed, grudge & fantasies. This law becomes more lethal when misused along with the Dowry Law or IPC 498A. The case under “Act” is usually filed just after an FIR U/S 498A of IPC is registered for the same cause of action.

c. When there is a dispute between the spouses and when the wife files a criminal cases like Dowry Harassment (IPC 498A) against the husband, it becomes impossible for him to continue to live with the wife. And if the wife claims for Right to residence in his house under this “Act”, then husband has to vacate the house along with his aged parent, as it is impractical to even think that husband and his wife can stay under the same roof that too when the criminal cases are pending. This leads to an unbearable harassment to the husband and his age old parent. Punishing him before beginning the trail is violation of his constitutional rights. In some cases the husbands will be re-paying their house loans, but because of the residence orders husband and his parent will be staying outside their houses in spite of paying for house loans, causing a great burden and hardship to them.

d. If the husband / his parents live in the shared house they have to face harassment of police / face multiple other criminal cases as per the wish of wife’s lawyer. So invariably husband and his old parents have to run away, sometimes without belongings and stay in a rented accommodation.

e. The wife can get an order prohibiting the husband from operating his own bank accounts including his salary accounts, making it impossible for him to live. In one case, wife first used 498A to send the husband & her mother-in-law to jail. As soon as they were released on bail, wife used “Act” to lock all their bank accounts & properties including the husband’s salary account. When they went home, they were beaten up by the wife & her kin and the husband & the mother-in-law were thrown out of their own house, thus making them penniless and homeless. This is how women are misusing this “Act” resulting in violation of basic rights of the innocent husbands & aged in-laws. Even in the cases of Dowry death the husband will get a chance to prove not guilty, but this “Act” first punishes the husband and then gives the husband the chance to prove not guilty.

f. The wife can get an order prohibiting the husband from entering the shared household. This resulting in, he being thrown out of his own house without any cause. This “Act” enables the wife to capture the house of the husband and in-laws and throw them out. In many of the cases it has been observed that some women acting like goons misuse this “Act” to capture the hard-earned properties of the husband and in-laws, denying their basic rights. Once the wife gets the control over the property she can use that to accommodate her kin or bring-in her boy-friends.

g. Wife can file multiple maintenance suits for the same relief, one under this “Act” and another under Cr.P.C 125 or any other provision available just to harass the husband by making him run around different courts. This concept of misusing multiple maintenance provisions has gone beyond bearable limits. There are numerous complaints from victims and this has prompted us file a Public Interest Litigation, in Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka with Writ Pet. No. 9168/10.

h. Though this “Act” restricts the maintenance amount to be fair & reasonable, the Hon’ble magistrates in various courts are hardly giving attention to this clause. In a hurry to provide justice to the women they are passing meaningless orders with exorbitant amounts as maintenance without any justification. The high amounts of maintenance passed by the magistrates are being misused by the estranged wives for enrichment and luxury.

i. Some wives gets ex-party orders to get her belongings and come with police protection and take away all the evidences, photos, bank accounts, property documents, gold, cash, credit cards, everything what she knows and what her lawyer suggests along with important house hold items.

j. Since this “Act” assumes that whatever the women says as true, is highly vulnerable to misuse.

k. The misuse of the “Act” is so rampant that many of the parliamentarians, courts, Chief justices of various High courts have expressed their concerns over the misuse.

l. Many women are using the “Act” to settle score with husbands and to capture his properties.

m. There are instances of misuse where women had invoked the “Act” just after few days after the marriage as it was pre planed to misuse.

n. There are instances where the petitioner is well educated and capable of working and earning and in many cases working but in order to harass the husbands they resign from their jobs and invoke this “Act”.

o. The misuse is so wide and rampant that even though any order under the said “Act” is enforceable only against husband but in order to harass petitioner adds all the family members of the husband as respondent.

5. Delhi High Court in a case related to the “Act” on 13-08-2010 observed that “I therefore consider that the application filed by the petitioner under Section 12 of Domestic Violence Act was not at all maintainable. The petitioner had settled her separate house in America, her Passport was issued in America, she is doing job in America, she was adult and able to take care of herself, take her own decisions. She decided to live in America after leaving her parents here. If she has any right in her father’s property, she has already filed a suit for partition. An application under Section 12 of Domestic Violence Act was nothing but a gross misuse of the Act and I consider that she was rightly denied the interim relief of residence in the property left by her father. The petition is hereby dismissed.”

6. Even the Hon’ble Supreme court in Batra VS Batra observed that the “Act” has been drafted poorly. Terming the definition of ‘shared household’ in Section 2(s) of the Act as “not very happily worded”, the Bench said it “appears to be the result of clumsy drafting, but we have to give it an interpretation which is sensible and does not lead to chaos in society,”

7. This “Act” does not provide any provision or mechanism of punishment to the petitioners who misuse the “Act” which causes to the respondents.

a. Severe damage in the society as they are branded as “wife beaters” and “dowry seekers”.

b. Loss of jobs due to filing of false case under the “Act”.

c. Bad and defamatory publication in media and loss of reputation.

d. Financial loss due to false cases.

e. Harassment to the old parent of respondents due to running around court due to false cases.

f. Prospectus of sisters of husbands not getting married due to false complaint.

8. That the petitioner prays to amend this “Act” which is being heavily misused by thousands of women across India to settle score with husbands and due to which thousands of families are breaking. It is therefore respectfully prayed to amend the “Act” to include below suggestions.

a. To make the said “Act” “gender-neutral” by providing protection to MEN as well.

b. To increase the scope of the said “Act” beyond “young married women” to a cover a much larger section of victims irrespective of their age & gender.

c. To introduce a punishment clause in the “Act” in-line with section 387 to 389 of Indian Penal Code. A new rule should be introduced to protect the rights of the accused by sufficiently compensating the accused.

d. To add a new clause for protecting the human rights of the respondent husband.

e. To remove the role of Protection officer.

f. To make the trial under this “Act” in compliance to Indian Evidence Act rather than in compliance to Criminal Procedure Code.

g. To empower magistrates to order Suo Moto perjury and contempt proceedings in respect of exaggerated or false allegation in respect of domestic violence, cruelty when such allegations are proved to be false.

h. To make time bound conclusion of trial in 60 days.

i. To do away the practice of passing high Ex-Parte/Interim maintenance under this “Act” even when there no prima facie evidence to prove Domestic Violence.

j. To not consider “sole testimony” of women as gospel truth.

Name of Petitioner Address Signature

P Suresh, Bangalore, Karnataka – 560048

NFHS reply on Consultation Paper-cum-Questionnaire regarding 498A IPC

26^th February 2011 / Bangalore

To,

Shri Justice Shiv Kumar Sharma
Member, Law Commission of India,
The Indian Law Institute Building
(Opp. to Supreme Court), Bhagwandas Road,  New Delhi – 110001

 

Subject: NFHS reply on Consultation Paper-cum-Questionnaire regarding Section 498-A of Indian Penal Code

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 14500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.

Questionnaire

1)                  a) What according to you is ideally expected of Police, on receiving the FIR alleging an offence u/s 498A of IPC?  What should be their approach and plan of action?

Once a complaint is received under 498A IPC police must not act in hurry. The police force is normally trained to deal with offences which are criminal in nature. They need to keep in mind that this complaint even though is categorised in the IPC but is still basically it is a dispute pertaining to husband and wife and is matrimonial dispute in nature. Any action by the police in haste or in hurry in making any attempt to arrest to husband or those named in the FIR will close all the ways of a possible reconciliation between the couple. Hence we suggest that as soon as a complaint is received at the police station immediately police must send the couple to Government Mediation Centre to explore the possibility of reconciliation.

b) Do you think that justice will be better meted out to the aggrieved woman by the immediate arrest and custodial interrogation of the husband and his relations named in the FIR?  Would the objective of s.498A be better served thereby?

Immediate arrest and custodial interrogation of the husband and his relatives means nothing but breaking of another family. No husband will ever take back his wife after arrest and custodial interrogation by police. Husbands who approach our NGO categorically state that they prefer to go to jail rather than taking back their wife after suffering the humiliation of arrest and police interrogation.

 

2)                  a) The Supreme Court laid down in D.K. Basu (1996) and other cases that the power of arrest without warrant ought not to be resorted to in a routine manner and that the Police officer should be reasonably satisfied about a person’s complicity as well as the need to effect arrest.  Don’t you agree that this rule applies with greater force in a situation of matrimonial discord and the police are expected to act more discreetly and cautiously before taking the drastic step of arrest?

In fact as a rule police must not arrest anyone in the complaint u/s 498A IPC as not only the complaint is of matrimonial in nature but also there are high chances that it could be a false complaint and the allegations could be exaggerated and colourful version of the actual. Most of the time it has been found that the complaint is registered as a counterblast to the divorce/RCR filed by husband and is an afterthought.

 

b) What steps should be taken to check indiscriminate and unwarranted arrests?

498A must be made bailable with immediate effect to curb the power of the police. Almost all the DGPs had issued circulars and guidelines regarding 498A IPC. Police must follow them strictly.

 

3)                  Do you think that making the offence bailable is the proper solution to the problem?  Will it be counter-productive?

Yes, 498A must be made bailable and that is the answer to curb the heavy misuse of 498A IPC.

 

4)                  There is a view point supported by certain observations in the courts’ judgments that before effecting arrest in cases of this nature, the proper course would be to try the process of reconciliation by counselling both sides.   In other words, the possibility of exploring reconciliation at the outset should precede punitive measures.  Do you agree that the conciliation should be the first step, having regard to the nature and dimension of the problem? If so, how best the conciliation process could be completed with utmost expedition? Should there be a time-limit beyond which the police shall be free to act without waiting for the outcome of conciliation process?

Yes, the couple must be sent to the Government appointed counselling centres immediately with a possible time frame of 3 months. Registration of FIR u/s 498A IPC means breaking of another family.

5)                  Though the Police may tender appropriate advice initially and facilitate reconciliation process, the preponderance of view is that the Police should not get involved in the actual process and their role should be that of observer at that stage?   Do you have a different view?

The normal tendency of the police is to call the husband and his family members and threaten them with criminal case. The police use the same language which they use against the criminals to the husband and his family members. The role of the police should be as far eliminated in the matrimonial disputes.

 

6)                  a) In the absence of consensus as to mediators, who will be ideally suited to act as mediators/conciliators – the friends or elders known to both the parties or professional counsellors (who may be part of NGOs), lady and men lawyers who volunteer to act in such matters, a Committee of respected/retired persons of the locality or the Legal Services Authority of the District?

Normally Government appointed mediation/Counselling centres will be ideally suited to counsel the parties.

 

b) How to ensure that the officers in charge of police stations can easily identify and contact those who are well suited to conciliate or mediate, especially having regard to the fact that professional and competent counsellors may not be available at all places and any delay in initiating the process will lead to further complications?

Normally all major tier1 and tier2 cities have such centres. In the absence of such centres in a city the couple can be sent to the nearest cities. The DGP of the particular state can frame guidelines and issue circular to all the SHO’s of his state about do’s and dont’s in such cases.

 

7)  a) Do you think that on receipt of complaint under S.498A, immediate steps should be taken by the Police to facilitate an application being filed before the Judicial Magistrate under the PDV Act so that the Magistrate can set in motion the process of counseling/conciliation, apart from according interim protection?

There is no need for it. The police itself can be issued instruction/circular to send the parties to the counseling/mediation centers. PDV Act is for such wife’s who had undergone violence at the hands of their husband. If the complaint received at the police station is false one then if another application is filed before magistrate then it will amount to filing of another false complaint.

b)  Should the Police in the meanwhile be left free to arrest the accused without the permission of the Magistrate?

As we had mentioned earlier that power of the police to arrest accused in case of a complaint u/s 498A IPC has to be completely eliminated.

c)  Should the investigation be kept in abeyance till the conciliation process initiated by the Magistrate is completed?

The police should wait for the report from the counseling centre. If it is found during the counseling that the complaint has been found to be a false one and there are no evidence of torture then police should close the case.

8)                  Do you think that the offence should be made compoundable (with the permission of court)? Are there any particular reasons not to make it compoundable?

Once a complaint is registered then the complainant should not have the option to withdraw it. If the complainant is allowed to withdraw the complaint then it amounts to blackmailing. Anyone with intention to extract money from husband will file complaint in police station and withdraw later when her demands are met. 498A must not be allowed to be used as a blackmail tool. Hence we strongly oppose to make it compoundable.

 

9)                  Do you consider it just and proper to differentiate the husband from the other accused in providing for bail? No

 

10)               a) Do you envisage a better and more extensive role to be played by Legal Services Authorities (LSAs) at Taluka and District levels in relation to s.498A cases and for facilitating amicable settlement?   Is there a need for better coordination between LSAs and police stations?

Yes, LSA’s can play a better role but in reconciliation and not in settlement. We need to understand that the meaning of reconciliation and settlement are different. 498A should not be used as a settlement tool to extract money and meet demand of the complainant.

b) Do you think that aggrieved women have easy access to LSAs at the grassroot level and get proper guidance and help from them at the pre-complaint and subsequent stages?

Not sure.

 

c)Are the  Mediation Centres in some States well equipped and  better suited to attend to the cases related to S,498-A?

Yes

 

11)               What measures do you suggest to spread awareness of the protective penal provisions and civil rights available to women in rural areas especially among the poorer sections of people?

We feel that there is a need to spread awareness about heavy misuse of 498A IPC and the consequences. If the message reaches to the large section of the society that once a false complaint is lodged then it is the end of the road for the couple then many such false complaints will not be lodged. Now in the present situation whenever there is a misunderstanding between the couple then there is a tendency to rush to the police station and lodge a complaint under misguidance.

 

12)               Do you have any information about the number of and conditions in shelter homes which are required to be set up under PDV Act to help the aggrieved women who after lodging the complaint do not wish to stay at marital home or there is none to look after them?

Government must set up shelter homes for women under DV Act and it must be made mandatory for the complainant to reside there.

 

13)               What according to you is the main reason for low conviction rate in the prosecutions u/s 498A?

The conviction rate in 498A IPC is very low as the complaints which are given are not true and most of the time they are colourful and the exaggerated version. Hence they fail in the court of law.

 

14)               (a) Is it desirable to have a Crime Against Women Cell (CWC) in every district to deal exclusively with the crimes such as S.498A?   If so, what should be its composition and the qualifications of women police deployed in such a cell?

All major cities have women police station and all states have State Women Commissions who can entertain complaint from women hence there is no need to setup CWC.

 

(b) As the present experience shows, it is likely that wherever a CWC is set up, there may be substantial number of unfilled vacancies and the personnel may not have undergone the requisite training. In this situation, whether it would be advisable to entrust the investigation etc. to CWC to the exclusion of the jurisdictional Police Station?

There is no need to duplicate authorities as it will lead to further complications. The procedure has to be kept simple for the benefit of everyone. The complaint can be lodged with police and they have to sent it mandatory to counselling centre and then wait for their report.

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                                              

9880141531                                                    

National Family Harmony Society

NFHS session on how to create awareness on heavy miuse of DV Act

Strong objections to the “THE MARRIAGE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2010” by NFHS

NHFS/120311/1                                                                12^th March 2011/Bangalore

To,

Hon’able Mr. Veerappa Moily,

Hon’ble Minister of Law & Justice,

Ministry of Law and Justice,                                                                                      4th Floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhawan,                                                                       New Delhi – 110 001

Subject: Strong objections to the Forty Fifth report of the Rajya Sabha committee on “THE MARRIAGE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2010”

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 14500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / http://www.498a.org.in.

Dear Sir,

This is with regard to the Forty Fifth report of the Rajya Sabha committee on “THE MARRIAGE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2010”. We are surprised and disappointed that that though in Chapter II of the said report many of the points raised by the various NGOs, Groups, concerned citizens and other organizations are listed but they have been completely discarded in Chapter – IV which is the committee’s observations/Recommendations without assigning any valid reason. If the recommendation, Suggestions, comments of the various NGOs are to be ignored entirely, without assigning any reasons then why this farce of calling recommendation, Suggestions, comments from General public.

We would like to lodge our strong objections to the observations/Recommendations of the committees report and would request Law Ministry to disregard the report entirety and would request Law Ministry to call for fresh recommendation, Suggestions, comments from the various NGOs, Groups, concerned citizens and other stake holders.

The recommendation, Suggestions, comments had been sent by various stake holders who are actually having practical experience at the ground level and if their suggestions are to be ignored then there must be logical reason to it. If these suggestions are ignored without assigning any reason then it is not a democracy. We would like to present our objections to the committee’s report point by point.

Committee’s Recommendation in Chapter – IV – Para 4: The Committee, accordingly, recommends that the Bill should provide for some safeguards so that the new ground for divorce is not misused. The Committee also recommends that the Government may consider defining the term “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” in the Bill so that some uniform standards are followed in dealing with divorce petitions by the Courts.

 

NFHS Objection to Chapter – IV – Para 4:  The observation of the committee that the new ground will be used against women in rural areas is nothing but assumption and is not backed by any data or study. It is a known fact that many Gender Biased Laws like 498A are being rampantly misused by women in urban areas to harass their husbands and her in-laws. It is also a matter of common knowledge that nowadays women file multiple false criminal/civil cases against their husbands and in-laws and harass them by taking advantage of women-centric laws. If ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ is added as a new ground for divorce then it will be heavily misused by women who will walk away with divorce, claiming the marriage is dead due to multiple criminal and civil cases and walk away with divorce and the husband will be left fighting the false cases. The bill is totally silent about the remaining criminal and civil cases.

Hon’ble Supreme Court in Swati Verma vs. Rajan Verma reported in (2004) 1 SCC 123, observed that “A large number of criminal cases had been filed by the petitioner against the respondent. This Court observed that the marriage between the parties had broken down irretrievably with a view to restore good relationship and to put a quietus to all litigations between the parties and not to leave any room for future litigation, so that they may live peacefully hereafter”.

The observation by the Hon’ble speaks the why ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ should be added as a ground for divorce. If both the parties continuous with other litigation, even after obtaining divorce under ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ then such divorce is meaningless. Hence we recommend that the BILL should incorporate mechanism so that all litigations between the parties are closed at the time of granting divorce under ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’.

Committee’s Recommendation in Chapter – IV – Para 5: The Committee notes that the term ‘grave financial hardship’ appearing here is capable of varied interpretation. Further, it may be difficult for the wife to satisfy the court that it would ‘in all circumstances be wrong to dissolve the marriage’. Not only this, the provisions of the Bill talk of ‘grave’ financial hardship, i.e., divorce may not be allowed on this ground if the wife is being subjected to a ‘grave’ financial hardship. Does it mean that court may proceed with the grant of a decree of divorce on this ground despite the fact that the wife may be put to ‘financial hardship’ and not “grave” financial hardship? The Committee, accordingly, recommends that the term “grave financial hardship” may be defined so that there is less of ambiguity. The Committee further recommends a review of these provisions of the Bill so that the interests of the women are better safeguarded in the divorce proceedings in the court.

 

NFHS Objection to Chapter – IV – Para 5: NFHS objects to the recommendations of committee for only considering financial hardships of wife and completely ignoring the financial hardships of husbands. Our NGO has been continuously receiving cases of many such husbands who have been ruined completely due to the multiple false criminal cases pending against them. Many such husbands have been removed from their jobs due to pending criminal cases like 498A IPC thus bringing them on streets for their survival. The very fact that committee has not considered the cases of such husbands is enough to conclude that committee is not aware about the ground realities and pain and harassment of such husbands at the hands of their cruel wives. Hence we recommend that the word wife and husband must be replaced with SPOUSE so that BILL will take care of such husbands also and will be Gender Neutral in true sense.

Committee’s Recommendation in Chapter – IV – Para 7: Accordingly, the Committee feels that there should be some effective legal mechanism so that the women atleast get their share in the matrimonial property which has been acquired during the subsistence of marriage. The Committee, accordingly, recommends the Government to make adequate provisions in the Matrimonial Law to ensure that the courts, while adjudicating on divorce petitions, also decide upon women’s share in the matrimonial property while granting divorce so that they are not deprived of the assets/properties in which they have contributed during the continuance of marriage. The Committee is strongly of the view that liberalization of the laws of divorce should essentially be accompanied with appropriate provisions recognizing the legitimate rights of the women on the matrimonial property/assets atleast, in which they have their share of contribution.

 

NFHS Objection to Chapter – IV – Para 7: NFHS marks our strong protests to the provision of duplication of laws regarding properties. Also this provision could be grossly misused. Going by the misuse of many legislation it could be possible that in order to get properties either spouse may file for divorce under this section with an eye on property within few year of marriage. Since always a new legislation is made with an intention for the benefit of the society but at the same time it is wise to have checks and balances so as to curb probable misuse. Hence NFHS recommends that if at all property clause is added then it should be available to only such couple who will file for divorce under this section after minimum ten years of marriage.

Another suggestion from NFHS is the definition of ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ has to be defined very clearly. Though staying away from each other from many years could be one such criteria, at the same time large number of cases and counter cases between the parties also come within the definition of dead marriages. Hence finally we suggest to call for fresh suggestions, comments and recommendations from general public again and also comprehensive study on this subject so that BILL is not passed in haste.

Some of the press coverage wherein NFHS has strongly opposed the proposed BILL is below.

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/dna-coverage/

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/nfhs-opposes-marriage-laws-amendment-bill-newspolitan/

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/marriage-law-amendment-did-moily-violate-his-promise-megamedia/

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/nfhs-opposes-marriage-laws-amendment-bill-newkerala/

https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/nfhs-opposes-marriage-laws-amendment-bill-webindia/

P Suresh,

President, National Family Harmony Society

Mobile: 9880141531

NFHS Petition to Law commission on 498A

26^th February 2011

Bangalore

To,

Chairman, Law Commission Of India,

The Indian Law Institute Building

(Opp. to Supreme Court),

Bhagwandas Road,

New Delhi – 110 001.

Subject: Regarding arbitrary arrests of ordinary law-abiding citizens under IPC Sections 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and related laws.

 

About National Family Harmony Society®: “National Family Harmony Society®” NFHS is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoting the cause of “family harmony” and “gender equality”. It is registered under “The Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960” and is based in Bangalore. We have branches in more than 16 states and in abroad too. We have approximately 14500 members all over India. To know more about us please visit http://www.family-harmony.org / www.498a.org.in.

 

Honorable members of the Parliament have been raising questions in the parliament at regular interval regarding the heavy misuse of IPC Sections 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and related laws. Please find some of the questions raised by members of Parliament regarding heavy misuse of women centric laws.

T a b l e – 1

Sl No	Question number	House	Name of  Member	Answered on	Subject
1	1409	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI MOTILAL VORA	01.08.2003	MISUSE OF DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT
2	1610	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI R.S. GAVAI	16.03.2005	INCREASING NUMBER OF FALSE DOWRY CASES
3	2698	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI ABU ASIM AZMI	22.08.2005	AMENDMENTS TO DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT
4	2805	RAJYA SABHA	PROF. RAM DEO BHANDARY	23.08.2006	HARASSMENT DUE TO DOWRY ALLEGATIONS
5	3876	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI MAHENDRA SAHNI	10.05.2007	AMENDMENT IN ANTI DOWRY LAW
6	4501	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI SURENDRA LATH	16.05.2007	MISUSE OF DOWRY PROHIBITION ACTs
7	1474	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI BRIJ BHUSHAN TIWARI	03.12.2007	AMENDMENTS TO DOWRY LAWS
8	1696	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI LALIT KISHORE CHATURVEDI	05.12.2007	PUNISHING PEOPLE FILING FALSE DOWRY RELATED CASES
9	2933	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI KAMAL AKHTAR	21.04.2008	STIFFER ANTI DOWRY LAWS
10	1474	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI BRIJ BHUSHAN TIWARI	03.12.2007	AMENDMENTS TO DOWRY LAWS
11	1073	RAJYA SABHA	SHRI AMAR SINGH	10.03.2008	AMENDMENT OF ANTI DOWRY ACT
12	304	RAJYA SABHA	ABU ASIM AZMI	20.10.2008	MISUSE OF ANTI DOWRY ACT
13	440	LOK SABHA	SHRI SANAT KUMAR	28.08.2001	Dowry Prohibition Act and Domestic
14	1012	LOK SABHA	Shri RAMDAS ATHAWALE	06.03.2007	AMENDMENT IN DOWRY ACT
15	440	LOK SABHA	Shri SANAT KUMAR MANDAL	20.02.2009	DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT
16	2030	LOK SABHA	Shri DALPAT SINGH PARASTE	30.11.2007	ABUSE OF ANTI-DOWRY LAW
17	193	LOK SABHA	Shri RAGHUVIR SINGH KAUSHAL	16.11.2007	FALSE IMPLICATION IN DOWRY DEATH CASES
18	1181	LOK SABHA	Kunwar REWATI RAMAN SINGH	21.08.2007	COMPLAINTS ON DOWRY BY NRIs
19	382	LOK SABHA	Shri N CHELUVARAYA SWAMY SWAMYGOWDA	20.11.2009	MISUSE OF DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT, 1961S

 

Honorable Supreme Court and various High Courts have observed from time to time that these women centric laws are being highly misuse. Honorable Supreme Court had observed that IPC 498A is being used as “Legal Terror”. Some of the observation of the Supreme Court and various High Courts are compiled below:

 

T a b l e –  2

Sl No	Court	Case Number/Reported	Year	Between
1	Supreme Court	Writ Petition (C) No. 141 of 2005)	2005	Sushil Kumar Sharma Vs. Union of India (UOI)
2	Supreme Court	Appeal (crl.) 206	2008	Som Mittal Vs Govt. of Karnataka
3	Supreme Court	Appeal (crl.) 1716 of 2007	2007	Onkar Nath Mishra & Ors vs State (Nct Of Delhi) & Anr
4	Supreme Court	2000 (2) JCC (SC) 657: 2000 (5) SCC 207	2000	Kans Raj vs. State of Punjab and others
5	Delhi HC	Crl.A.No.339-41/2005	2010	–
6	Delhi HC	CRL.M.C.7262/2006	2007	–
7	Delhi HC	CRL. R 462/2002	2003	Savitri Devi Versus  Ramesh Chand and Ors.
8	AP HC	A. A. O. No. 1039 of 2001	2002	Saritha Vs R.Ramachandra
9	Punjab & Haryana HC	(1990)2 Rec Cri R 243	1990	Jasbir Kaur vs. State of Haryanas
10	Supreme Court	CriLJ 2993	2000	Kanaraj vs. State of Punjab
11	Karnataka HC	2002 CriLJ 3605	–	State Vs. Srikanth
12	Supreme Court	2002 CriLJ 4124	2002	Mohd. Hoshan vs. State of A.P.
13	Delhi HC	2003 CriLJ 2759	2003	Savitri Devi vs. Ramesh Chand
14	Punjab & Haryana HC	2003 CriLJ 3394	2003	Bhupinder Kaur and others vs. State of Punjab and others
15	Jharkhand HC	2004 CriLJ 2989	2004	Arjun Ram Vs. State of Jharkhand and another
16	Punjab & Haryana HC	RCR (Criminal) 163	2002	Mukesh Rani Vs. State of Haryana
17	Delhi HC	2001 (2) JCC (Delhi) 86	2001	Anu Gill Vs. State & Anrs
18	Supreme Court	AIR 2005 SC 1989	2005	Ramesh & Ors. Vs. State of Tamil Nadu
19	Delhi HC	CHANDER KANTA LAMBA & ORS	–	–
20	ADDITIONAL SESSIONS JUDGE	Revision No. 88/2008/2002	2002	–
21	Punjab & Haryana HC	–	2002	Krishan Jeet Singh vs State Of Haryana
22	Orissa HC	–	2003	Benumadhab Padhi Mohapatra vs State
23	AP HC	Criminal Petition No. 6642 of 2007	2007	Kamireddy Mangamma and others
24	Allahabad HC	CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. – 3322 of 2010	2010	Sanjeev Kumar & Others vs State Of U.P.s

 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence or to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

 

In blatant violation of all the above rights, thousands of husbands and their families are arbitrarily arrested every year, without evidence or investigation, under IPC Sections 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act, and related wife-centric laws which presume that the accused are “guilty until proven innocent”.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has noted the misuse of dowry laws, arrest of innocent individuals and the resultant overcrowding of prisons. NHRC has urged the judiciary and law enforcement agencies to take measures against these abuses. High Courts across the country and the Supreme Court have condemned the misuse of dowry laws. The Commissioner of Police, Bangalore had issued standing instructions vide memo to check arbitrary arrests. The DGP, Karnataka has also issued a circular to implement 11 guidelines issued by Honorable Supreme Court of India regarding arrests and detention of Individuals in Cr WP No. 539/1986 and Cr WP No.592/1987. By taking note of the heavy misuse of the 498A IPC, recently on October 20, 2009, Union Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an advisory to all the state Governments and Union Territories. National Commission of Human Rights also has issued guidelines regarding arrests.

Nevertheless, abuse of police powers continues and unnecessary arrests have only been growing. Police routinely enter people’s homes at ungodly hours, take accused men and women into custody, and incarcerate them in the name of “protecting women from cruelty and harassment”. Innocent citizens are illegally detained, humiliated, subjected to mental and physical torture, blackmail and extortion. The honor and reputation of these accused individuals is simultaneously attacked through media trial and unrestrained slander by women’s organizations every day. Thousands of men and women have been driven to suicide due to the trauma of false cases, arrest, prolonged trials and the resultant humiliation and financial troubles they have to endure.

According to statistics published by the National Crime Records Bureau in 2007 alone, an overwhelming 94% of the individuals arrested under IPC Section 498A were found not guilty. A closer look at individual cases under Section 498A reveals that arrests are made by lower cadre police officials without proper justification and only with the intent of terrorizing innocent citizens and extorting money from them under the threat of imprisonment and long-drawn legal battles.

Our numerous pleas to the Government of India to stop arbitrary arrests of citizens under IPC Section 498A have fallen on deaf ears. On the other hand, new laws are always on the anvil (sexual assault, work place harassment, acid attacks etc.) which stress on immediate arrest of men upon mere accusations made by women.

While it is amply clear that under the prevailing circumstances, arrest is inevitable for any man facing allegations of abuse or assault, it is imperative that innocent citizens are prepared to go to jail even if they committed no crime. Ordinary law abiding citizens and their kin should be freed from the fear of jail and the concomitant feelings of humiliation and suffering so that they do not drive themselves into depression, ruin their health or end their own lives.

In spite of All round coverage by Media regarding heavy Misuse of IPC 498A, questions in the parliament by honorable MPs, Critical remarks by various HCs and SC, Observation by NHRC, advisories issued by Union Home Ministry from time to time, State Governments are not taking any steps to prevent the heavy misuse of IPC Sections 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and related laws. These laws are so biased and dangerous that any innocent can become victim just on a false complaint by a woman. Even celebrities like Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib Malik and Former Union Minister Arjun Singh have not been spared have been falsely implicated under these laws.

 

OUR DEMANDS:

 

• Bring in appropriate amendment: To stop the heavy misuse of Gender Biased laws such as 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and related laws.

 

• Bring in appropriate amendment: So that no arrest happens before Final Judgment/Order in case of a complaint under 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and related laws.

 

• Bring in appropriate amendment: To stop arbitrary arrest of elderly persons, children and pregnant sisters.

 

• Bring in appropriate amendment: To prevent arbitrary arrests by police and to implement the advisory issued by the Union Home Ministry regarding heavy misuse of the 498A IPC.

 

• Bring in appropriate amendment: As it is a common knowledge that allegations made in the Domestic Violence Act and IPC 498A are almost similar hence there must be an amendment so that only one provision can be used in case of a matrimonial dispute.

 

 

 

 

P Suresh, President,                                           M Mahesh, General Secretary,

9880141531                                                      9731569970

National Family Harmony Society                        National Family Harmony Society

Discharge application CrPC 239/227

239. When accused shall be discharged.

If, upon considering the police report and the documents sent with it under section 173 and making such examination, if any, of the accused as the Magistrate thinks necessary and after giving the prosecution and the accused an opportunity of being heard, the Magistrate considers the charge against the accused to be groundless, he shall discharge the accused, and record his reasons for so doing.

227. Discharge.

If, upon consideration of the record of the case and the documents submitted herewith, and after hearing the submissions of the accused and the prosecution in this behalf, the Judge considers that there is not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused, he shall discharge the accused and record his reasons for so doing.

• Discharge in 239 happens mostly based on complaint and allegations
• Discharge in 227 happens mostly based on material
• Discharge is a good strategy if you want to delay the case due to whatever reasons.
• In criminal cases delay is always better as the memory of the complainant and witness fades with number of years.
• There are number of instances where witness died during trial and hence benefits the accused.
• Many time delay in proceedings are not good. E.g. getting acquittal in 498A may be very critical because that is a ground for getting divorce.
• Don’t file discharge just because some one else is filing or just because your lawyer has suggested.
• Study and understand the implication of filing discharge as it may be good or may not be good in your particular case.
• Even if discharge application is dismissed you can challenge it in HC under CrPC 397 (Criminal Revision Petition)
• There is a misconception that only sister’s name or mother’s name can be discharged and other’s name cannot be discharged.
• Remember in 239 discharge happens purely based on allegations and in 227 discharge happens purely on material so even A1 can be discharged if above conditions are not satisfied.
• Grounds for acquittal and discharge are different. E.g. Delay In FIR is a ground for acquittal but not for discharge.
• Discharge in simple terms is nothing but relief at an early stage without the harassment of going through trial.

For further information and reading you can refer to https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/category/resource/discharge/

Strong objection to “Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2010” – Fantastic Draft by Niladri

To,                                                                        20^th January 2011 / Bangalore

Shri N S Walia,

Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat,

Room No 515, 5th Floor, Parliament House Annexe,

New Delhi – 110001, Ph – 011- 23034187

To The Honorable Members of Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee, on Human Resources Development, headed by Shri Oscar Fernandes, M. P. Rajya Sabha

Sub: Strong objection to DUPLICATION of law & EXTORTION in the name of framing “Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2010”. A Bill being framed in VIOLATION of Constitution, Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Apex Court Order, just to promote business and income generation for some lawyers

 

This memorandum is in strong objection to the bill titled “Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2010”. 

 

Today India is more famous for its astronomical scams and rampant corruption. The outgoing chief of the Central Vigilance Commission openly stated that about 30% of Indians are utterly corrupt and about 50% are on the borderline corrupt and can be corrupted if presented with a situation. Hence given that over 80% of the country is corrupt, what is the justification behind creating laws which can be easily used as weapon for extortion. From the above data it can be concluded with reasonable accuracy that given that half the country is composed of women, over 40% of the Indian women are also corrupt. The media is awash on the rampant possibility of Misuse of the present bill. In this context we would like to bring to the notice of the Hon’ble Members, that our President, Her Excellency Mrs. Pratibha Patil, has repeatedly warned on the massive misuse of gender biased laws, and urged everyone to exercise extreme caution while drafting such bills. The present bill, if passed in the present format, containing numerous loopholes and open to rampant misuse, would be a serious vote bank issue in the coming elections.

Has this Bill been framed only to give employment to Women NGO members!!

 

Clause 19(h) states, that the Employer, shall “initiate action, under the Indian Penal Code or any other law for the time being in force, against the perpetrator after the conclusion of the inquiry, or without waiting for the inquiry, where the perpetrator is not an employee in the workplace at which the incident of sexual harassment took place.

 

Or in other words, this Bill would be applicable only for Sexual Harassment cases, when the person is an employee. In such a case, no proof is required of the alleged Sexual Harassment. The person also need not undergo any punishment and only needs to pay money to the alleged victim, which would be again deducted from his salary. For all the other cases of sexual harassment (when he is not an employee), the existent IPC laws would be very much applicable and thus he would have to undergo punishment as per IPC laws, (for which proof is required), and he does not have to need to pay any money to the victim.

 

Thus it is amply clear that Laws for alleged Sexual harassment already exist in the IPC and this Bill is just a Duplication of Law

The existing Sections of 509 and Section 354 are more than capable to cover all instances of sexual harassment at workplace or at any other place for that matter. The brief description of the sections are given below

Section 509 :- Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman

Section 354 :- Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty

The three shortcomings in the Present IPC Laws of Sexual Harassment and the real agenda of some Lawyers group, in framing this Bill.

 

Is this Bill framed only for extortion & employment for women Activists Lawyers!!

First of all under the present IPC laws, the women does not get any monetary compensation for sexual harassment and the perpetrator also gets punished, if found guilty. Moreover, no Women NGO member gets paid for being recruited as committee members under the present IPC laws. In the present bill however, there is no punishment for the perpetrator, whereas the victim gets monetary compensation, for alleged Sexual Harassment, with an elaborate, non required, recruitments of committee members from various women NGOs, whose qualification would be “committed to the cause of women”, and thus get paid by the Government, from Tax Payers hard earned money.

Secondly in the Present IPC laws, the woman needs evidence in the court, to prove her case. In the present bill, however, there is no such requirement as the process of enquiry of the complaint has not been defined. Very special measure like blanket ban of use of RTI on the enquiry proceeding have also been proposed in this bill, making it wide open for rampant misuse.

Thirdly, the present IPC laws are again criminal in nature with the government Public Prosecutors, fighting for the women, with no scope of income generation for the women activist lawyers. In the present bill, the alleged victim would however require lawyers including women activists’ lawyers to fight her case and get monetary compensation for alleged sexual harassments. Thus the present bill would generate huge business and income for lawyers including women activists and simultaneously clog the judicial dockets with non required, multiple cases, as per the very draft of the bill itself. Such a scope of business and income generation for women activist lawyers is unfortunately absent under the present IPC laws.

Suggestion 1

Avoid duplication of law as the very bill states that remedies under present IPC are very much available for the same offense of sexual harassment and can also be easily applied when the perpetrator is not an employee. There is also no bar in the present IPC laws where it apparently states that the very same IPC laws of Sexual Harassment cannot be applicable on persons when he is an employee in any organization, and is only applicable when he not an employee. As it is out clear that the only purpose of the bill is just to give employment to Women NGO members, the government can alternatively, employ such, women NGO members, qualified as “committed to the cause of women” in various other upcoming social schemes, or give them training to upgrade their skill sets or give them easy loans under self employment schemes.

Let us now go through the other various shortcomings of the present draft of the bill, and which requires the following amendments

A. Gender Neutrality

Comments

1) All employers are committed to maintaining a workplace where each employee’s privacy and personal dignity are respected and protected from offensive / threatening behavior, irrespective of gender.

2) The Sexual Harassment at workplace policies prevalent in most of the nations today are gender neutral. According to a report on Sexual harassment at workplace by United Nations Economic Commission of Europe – Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, The Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom have policies for Sexual Harassment, that are gender neutral. Even neighboring Pakistan has Gender Neutral Sexual Harassment policies.

3) Surveys recently conducted by the Economic times, and Synovate across 6 Indian cities exposed the fact that men face more sexual harassment than women and must also be given protection.

4) Eminent social workers like Madhu Kishwar supported the fact that the Sexual harassment at Workplace Bill in its present from needs immediate amendment.

As per the Census of India 2001 data, men constitute 68.37% of the total workforce whereas women were 31.63%. Therefore, any effort to prevent or eliminate sexual harassment at workplace should be applicable to employees, irrespective of gender, both in terms of responsibility and liability.

Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill should thus be made gender neutral so that it does not violate Article 15 of the Constitution which prohibits discrimination on grounds of gender. Moreover, Article 15(3) does not allow women to be exempted for punishment for committing the same crime as men, such as sexual harassment

 

Suggestion # 2

The Act should be made applicable to all employees, irrespective of their gender. The word woman should be replaced by the word employee in all appropriate places in the draft bill so as to render the proposed draft gender neutral.

 

B. Committees

B-I Tenure of Committees

Comments

The committees should not be permanent entities. This would help avoid any possibility of malpractice. Committees should be formed only when a complaint is received and appropriate action is warranted on it. They should be disbanded after appropriate action has been taken.

Suggestion # 3

No committee be formed unless to hear a specific complaint.

B-II Remuneration for Committee members

Comments

Section 7(2) and Section 7(4) of the draft bill propose tenure and remuneration for the Committee members. It is strongly recommended that no remuneration or allowances should be made payable to any of the Committee members as it would encourage frivolous and malicious cases to justify such payments.

 

Suggestion # 4

No remuneration, monetary or otherwise, be provided to the committee members or chairperson.

 

B. 3 Constitution of committees

B.3-I Appointment of Committee Chairperson and Internal Committee members

Section 7(1)(a) of the draft bill states :- “a Chairperson to be nominated from amongst the eminent women in the field of social work and committed to the cause of women”

Comments

The above proposed section is based on an unjustified, untenable premise that only women are capable of arbitrating complaints of sexual harassment.

Both section 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(c) use the phrase ‘committed to the cause of women’. Even the Supreme Court, Vishakha Judgement does not use the phrase “committed to the cause of women”. This phrase in fact finds mention in several places in the draft bill and its connotation only suggests an inherent bias and prejudice against men. The committee members instead should be individuals with ‘high integrity and a judicious approach’.

 

Suggestion # 5

Instead of being gender biased and committed to the “cause of women”, the appointment of the Committee Chairperson and members should be on the basis of their integrity and their judicious approach. All appointments should be transparent.

B.3-II NGO Committee member

In section 7(1)(c), the bill states :- “at least one shall be a woman, to be nominated from amongst such non-governmental organisations or associations committed to the cause of women, which may be prescribed”

In section 7(1)(d), the bill states :- Provided that at least one-half of the total Members so nominated shall be women

Comments:

Members external to the organization should not be allowed to arbitrate on the issues that are internal to the organization. Members of women’s groups or non-governmental organizations dealing with issues of violence against women may harbour an inherent bias against men and a fair and equitable probe may not be made available to male victims of sexual harassment. They may also encourage women who are not necessarily harassed, but have other grievances with the organization, to file sexual harassment complaints.

Another stipulation in this section requires that at least fifty per cent of the members so nominated shall be women.

 

Suggestion # 6 & 7

 

• No members, external to the employer organization, be allowed in the committee.

• Any stipulation with respect to number of women in the Committee is unnecessary and makes a prejudiced assumption that only women are capable of arbitrating complaints..

Comments

In various sections the committee has been granted various powers to make appropriate recommendations to the employer or District Officer.

i. From the proposed draft bill it is not clear if the employer is bound by the recommendations of the committee.

ii. The process of appeals too is not clearly specified.

iii. Would the recommendation of the committee be open to challenge in a court of law?

iv. Does the respondent have a right to legal counsel during the proceedings on the enquiry?

v. The power of the committee and the process of the enquiry of the complaint should be well defined.

Again Clause 11(2) of the bill states that “the Internal Committee or the Local Committee, as the case may be, shall have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 when trying a suit in respect of the following matters, namely:—

(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;

(b) requiring the discovery and production of documents; and

(c) any other matter which may be prescribed.

We strongly object to the subclause (c) “any other matter which may be prescribed” as such an important bill can’t give huge powers to the committee and at the same time, make clauses ambiguous and open ended.

Suggestion # 8

The powers of the committee and the appeals process should be specified unambiguously. Inadequacies mentioned in (i) to (v) above need to be addressed explicitly. Clause 11(2)c, needs to be deleted, being not specific, ambiguous, and open to various interpretations.

C. Complaints

C-I Conciliation

In section 10 (1), the draft bill states – “The Internal Committee or, as the case may be, the Local Committee, may, before initiating inquiry under section 11 and at the request of the aggrieved woman take steps to settle the matter between her and the respondent through conciliation“.

Comments

A complaint of sexual harassment is a serious complaint, and under no circumstances should the conciliation include any monetary settlements. It is an outrage to the sensibilities of all self respecting men and women that money can be considered as adequate redressal for their loss of dignity. Moreover, monetary payments would only render the proposed statute open for abuse. Various media articles have specially pointed out these serious lacunae of this bill. In fact, this is in clear violation of the Supreme Court, Vishakha Judgement, which does not speak of awarding monetary compensation to a victim of Sexual Harassment, from the respondent, as Apex Court knew very well, that then, the bill, would be open to rampant misuse.

Suggestion # 9

Monetary compensation should not be a part of conciliation proceedings. This would to a large extent help avoid potential for misuse.

C-II Time limit on Filing Complaints

Comments

A time limit within which the complaint needs to be filed from the time of alleged incident is of crucial significance in settling sexual harassment disputes. Justice should be meted out before any evidence is damaged, destroyed, rendered useless or fades away from memory. In fact the complaint should be lodged by the complainant instantaneously and spontaneously without any loss of time. Any delay on this score must be explained to the satisfaction of the concerned authority. In addition, the filing of the complaint needs to be time bound. For example, it would be ridiculous to entertain a complaint of sexual harassment after years of the alleged incident. It is also important to remember that the guilty person should be visited with appropriate reformist action at the earliest, which can be made possible only when the complaint is filed instantaneously.

Suggestion # 10

The complaint should be filed immediately on the occurrence of the alleged incident. Any complaint not filed within a stipulated time period (4 weeks) should be closely scrutinized for veracity before admission and the delay should be explained in writing by the complainant, to the satisfaction of the committee.

C.3 Compensation

C.3-I Silence on action to be taken

The bill in clause 13(3)(i) states that “ to take action for sexual harassment as a misconduct in accordance with the provisions of the service rules applicable to the respondent or where no such service rules have been made, in such manner as may be prescribed;

C.3-II Financial Responsibility

In section 13(3)(ii), the draft bill directs – “to deduct, notwithstanding anything in the service rules applicable to the respondent, from the salary or wages of the respondent such sum of compensation to be paid to the aggrieved woman or to legal heirs, as it may determine, in accordance with the provisions of section 15:”

Comments

First of all the bill is totally silent on what action is to be taken on the respondent, in absence of service rules and states “as may be prescribed”. Or in other words, the draft bill is unfortunately silent on the main issue.

Secondly, loss of salary or wages would be a huge encumbrance on the family of the respondent, potentially including children, who would face economic hardships and could even jeopardize their future. The respondent must not be individually responsible when he/she is in employment of the organization. Rather, it is the responsibility of the organization to police its own employees and ensure they follow the service rules. If they don’t, the employer is responsible to pay the compensation to the victim. The employer can deal with the service aspects of the perpetrator separately in the best interest of their organization. In the western nations, the financial burden of a sexual harassment suit lies with the employer as it is the responsibility of the employer to provide a safe working environment to the employees.

 

Suggestion # 11

As prevalent in the western world, the Employer should bear the financial burden of the compensation ordered to the aggrieved person. The bill should clearly specify the action to be taken on the respondent in absence of service rules, as that it supposed to be the main purpose of this bill.

C.3-III Determination of Compensation

Comments

All incentives for filing frivolous and malicious complaints should be eliminated. No committee should be empowered to issue any monetary compensation at any stage of the complaint. All avenues for extortion and blackmail should be shut down by divesting the committee of all power to order any monetary incentive to the complainant.

The committee should be given authority only to investigate and submit a report. The question of compensation must be decided by a legal authority whose decisions are available for review by higher judiciary.

 

Suggestion # 12

The committee should be divested of all powers to order any monetary compensation at any stage of the proceedings.

C.4 False and Malicious complaint

In section 14(1), the bill states – “

Provided further that the malicious intent or falsehood on part of the complainant shall be established after an inquiry in accordance with the procedure prescribed, before any action is recommended”

Comments

When the allegations of sexual harassment cannot be proved against the respondent, then it should recommend action against the complainant immediately, within a maximum specified time limit of 30 days. The bill also states that “in accordance with the procedure prescribed”. We are all aware that most of the cases filed under this bill, would be false. And as no procedure is being spelt out, none would be punished for lodging false cases for ulterior motives. We strongly suggest the deletion of the above phrase to minimise its rampant misuse.

We would also like to humbly remind the Hon’ble Committee Members that on 7th August, 2009, some Women NGOs lobbied for deletion of the Misuse Clause from the draft bill. All the Women MPs, unanimously agreed that a Misuse Clause is very much needed to prevent misuse of this loosely worded bill. Unfortunately, after the above consensus was reached, with the Women MPs, the very misuse clause has been drastically changed to, make the bill, ironically, even more prone to misuse.

Section 14(1), of the bill states that if a complaint is found to be false, the committee “may recommend to the employer or the District Officer, as the case may be, to take action against the woman or the person who has made the complaint”.

The phrase ‘may recommend’ should be changed to “shall recommend” to ensure justice for a respondent falsely accused of sexual harassment.

 

Suggestion # 13

Mandatory action must be taken against the complainant when the complaint is found to be frivolous or malicious, within a maximum of 30 days.

 

Suggestion #14

Falsely accused person should have the right to pursue justice in a court of law, and claim appropriate redressal as remedy for the mental trauma, pain, suffering, emotional distress and social censure caused to the falsely accused person.

D. Duties of Employer

Clause 19 (g) states that “provide assistance to the woman if she so chooses to file a complaint in relation to the offence under the Indian Penal Code or any other law for the time being in force;

Comments on Section 19 (g)

The bill is totally silent on quality of assistance to be provided by the Employer.

Suggestion # 15

The quality of assistance to be provided by the Employer must be spelt out clearly and unambiguously in the bill.

E. Right to the Enquiry Report

Section 16 prohibits the publication or making known, the contents of complaint and enquiry proceedings. Interestingly the bill suggests suppression of information only when the case is False. Information on true cases can however be retrieved through RTI Act. In a report published by the Transparency International, it was found that India’s corruption index showed a marked decline and the single-most reason for the drop in corruption in government was attributed to the Right to Information Act. The RTI Act which has been hailed as a beacon of democracy in India many a times by the Honourable Prime Minister and Leader of the UPA Mrs. Sonia Gandhi cannot be allowed to be trampled in such a manner by some people having vested interest. Even the DoPT has given serious objections in writing against this Clause 16, which brutally tramples the RTI Act.

 

The Sexual Harassment at Workplace is an outcome of the guidelines framed by Honb’le Supreme Court of India in Vishakha Vs State of Rajasthan (AIR 1997 SC 3011). The guidelines clearly say that “These guidelines will not prejudice any rights available under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993”. The above clause is thus a clear contempt of the Apex Court guidelines and a blatant abuse of Human Rights.

Comments

When, either the complainant or the respondent wishes to approach any court of law for justice, they should have a right to the details and proceedings of the enquiry in the enquiry report to provide context to the judiciary.

 

Suggestion # 16

Section 16 should be deleted. In the event the complainant or the respondent wishes to pursue the matter in judiciary, the enquiry report should be provided to concerned party.

Summary of the above recommendations:

1. Avoid duplication of law as the very bill states that remedies under present IPC are very much available for the same offense of sexual harassment and can also be easily applied when the perpetrator is not an employee. There is also no bar in the present IPC laws where it apparently states that the very same IPC laws of Sexual Harassment cannot be applicable on persons when he is an employee in any organization, and is only applicable when he not an employee. As it is out clear that the only purpose of the bill is just to give employment to Women NGO members, the government can alternatively, employ such, women NGO members, qualified as “committed to the cause of women” in various other upcoming social schemes, or give them training to upgrade their skill sets or give them easy loans under self employment schemes.
2. The Act should be made applicable to all employees, irrespective of their gender. The word woman should be replaced by the word employee in all appropriate places in the draft bill so as to render the proposed draft gender neutral.
3. No committee be formed unless to hear a specific complaint.
4. No remuneration, monetary or otherwise, be provided to the committee members or chairperson.
5. Instead of being gender biased and committed to the “cause of women”, the appointment of the Committee Chairperson and members should be on the basis of their integrity and their judicious approach. All appointments should be transparent.
6. No members, external to the employer organization, be allowed in the committee.
7. Any stipulation with respect to number of women in the Committee is unnecessary and makes a prejudiced assumption that only women are capable of arbitrating complaints..
8. The powers of the committee and the appeals process should be specified unambiguously. Inadequacies mentioned in (i) to (v) above need to be addressed explicitly. Clause 11(2)c, needs to be deleted, being not specific, ambiguous, and open to various interpretations.
9. Monetary compensation should not be a part of conciliation proceedings. This would to a large extent help avoid potential for misuse.
10. The complaint should be filed immediately on the occurrence of the alleged incident. Any complaint not filed within a stipulated time period (4 weeks) should be closely scrutinized for veracity before admission and the delay should be explained in writing by the complainant, to the satisfaction of the committee.
11. As prevalent in the western world, the Employer should bear the financial burden of the compensation ordered to the aggrieved person. The bill should clearly specify the action to be taken on the respondent in absence of service rules, as that it supposed to be the main purpose of this bill.
12. The committee should be divested of all powers to order any monetary compensation at any stage of the proceedings.
13. Mandatory action must be taken against the complainant when the complaint is found to be frivolous or malicious, within a maximum of 30 days.
14. Falsely accused person should have the right to pursue justice in a court of law, and claim appropriate redressal as remedy for the mental trauma, pain, suffering, emotional distress and social censure caused to the falsely accused person.
15. The quality of assistance to be provided by the Employer must be spelt out clearly and unambiguously in the bill.
16. Section 16 should be deleted. In the event the complainant or the respondent wishes to pursue the matter in judiciary, the enquiry report should be provided to concerned party.

 

Thanking you

 

Golden Rule while getting cross examined

Golden Rule while getting cross examined

Authored by National Family Harmony Society, Bangalore – https://498amisuse.wordpress.com/

1. Never look into the eyes of the advocate who is crossing you. Always look into the eyes of the Judge.

2. Be cool, calm and composed and don’t panic.

3. If possible get a friend to the court hall to keep company to you prior to getting crossed.

4. Never give justification for the question. E.g.

Opposite advocate: I state that you have demanded 10 lakh of dowry from your wife.
Yourself  Wrong answer: Why will I demand dowry? I earn handsome salary
Yourself  Right answer: This is false.

5. Think why advocate is asking a particular question. He will not ask without motive.

6. Never answer any question in hurry but for that matter doesn’t take too long to answer.

7. Best way to frustrate opposite advocate is to ask him to repeat the question. Sir can you repeat the question. I did not understand!!. This way you not only frustrate the advocate but also you will get time to think over the answer which is favourable to you.

8. If you are not sure about the answer will favourable or against you then simply say I don’t remember.

9. You have the right to refuse a particular question. I have myself done this. E.g.

Opposite advocate: My I know where do you stay?
Yourself  Sir, at the last three places where I stayed they came and assaulted me. In view of that I am unable to give my current address.

10. You can do submission if you feel it can help in your favour.

11. Never lose your cool in spite of uncomfortable questions. Remember advocate is just putting a suggestion.

12.  Denying everything is good but be careful. I was watching a brother of husband getting cross examined in DV case.

Opposite advocate: Are you brother of Shri XYZ?
Brother of husband : Yes

Opposite advocate: In your affidavit whatever you have mentioned did you came to know on your own or your brother told you?
Brother of husband : I came to know on my own.

Opposite advocate: In paragraph 8 you have mentioned about a incident in their HoneyMoon. How you came to know of this on your own?
Brother of husband : F u m b l i n g!!…

Opposite advocate: You have given a false affidavit. Your Honour, the behaviour of the witness may kindly be recorded.

13.  Denying everything has the advantage of finishing the cross very fast. Remember in any case it is only cross which takes lot of time as it is a multiple event.