Seventy marriages saved, family court celebrates
MUMBAI:
"Judges, lawyers and counsellors of the family court need to have the
vision to accommodate the needs and aspirations of a changing society
where women
now have a very clear identity both before and after marriage," said
Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud of the Bombay high court on Saturday. The
judge was addressing a packed house on the family court premises in
Bandra, where 140 men and women on the verge of a split till a few days
ago went home together as 70 happy couples.
The family court,
its lawyers' association and marriage counsellors had organized a
felicitation function for 111 couples who with a little help from their
lawyers, counsellors and judges had given up their lengthy and
acrimonious legal battle for a divorce, maintenance or custody and had
resolved their differences to remain married. Seventy couples showed up,
and a few among them who still were vacillating decided to drop their
divorce proceedings after hearing Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice
Chandrachud of the high court as well as the principal judge of the
family court, Laxmi Rao.
Chief Justice Shah felicitated the
youngest couple present, who were in their 20s, and stressed that proper
and timely mediation could save many a broken marriage. He encouraged
more such group reconciliation programmes and promised more facilities
for the family court.
Judge Rao said there were several laws
that were being misused-such as the Domestic Violence Act-by people "on
wrong advice of well-wishers".
She, too, said that with proper intervention, marriages need not end in divorces even when things appear bleak.
President of the Family Court Bar Association advocate Sajan Oommen
said: "Family court lawyers must play a more proactive role, as the
Family Courts Act is not meant merely for dissolution of marriages but
for a solution to matrimonial disputes."
Family court judge Swati Chauhan was the first in April to conduct a group reconciliation of quarrelling couples.
It was her experiment that paved the way for more reconciliations. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Seventy-marriages-saved-family-court-celebrates/articleshow/20837521.cms
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