26th August 2013 is a day that will live in infamy for Indian
democracy when the country witnessed the broad daylight murder of
democracy and principles of natural justice on the very floors of Indian
Parliament. This is the day when the proposed Marriage Laws (Amendment)
Bill 2010 was cleared by the Rajya Sabha even after the opposition from
men’s rights groups and some members of the House. The shocking aspect
of the whole debate was the Minister of Law and justice Shri Kapil SIbal
made statements in support of this law, which were grossly misleading
and downright incorrect. The minister in his desire to get this law
passed was generous with misleading statements and very economical with
the truth.
The ground reality &repercussions of the law are severe on husbands and their families.
1. Husbands will lose their hard-earned property (self-acquired, inherited or inheritable) if their marriage breaks.
2. Husbands will still face other false cases under Section 498A,
Domestic Violence Act, Section 125 CrPC, etc. and get extorted further.
3. Husbands will lose your children to their estranged wife who will
poison them against you and the Govt. would aid her in doing so.
4. Husbands will become bankrupt if their wife decides to leave you or you are unhappy in the marriage.
5. Husbands would have no right to appeal as now your extortion is
codified in the law and power has been wrested with the insensitive and
anti-male Indian judiciary.
The Govt. chose to brush aide the aforementioned concerns of men’s
welfare groups giving a clear message that the Govt. in India is not
interested to work in men’s favor to even an iota’s extent. It’s up to
the men now to realize as to whether they should vote for such political
parties or even pay tax to such a Govt.
Some of the arguments that were used by Honourable Minister of Law
and Justice, Shri Kapil Sibal to help build a case for this law were
grossly misleading and totally inaccurate . His statements and our
counters are as below.
1.
India is a patriarchal society; hence laws must be pro-women.
This is a big myth which is conveniently used to pass any anti-male
law. If the society was indeed patriarchal, then in that case, the laws
would have protected a man’s right. Why would a patriarchal society even
bother about women and pass so many anti-male laws just to appease
women? Actually Indian society has never been patriarchal. Life has
always been tougher for men compared to women. Men have always been
expected to take more pains and make more sacrifices compared to women
and when men try to speak about their rights, their own fellow men work
against them and suppress them. It is just a convenient argument to
support anti-male laws so that men can be continuously harassed and
tortured in order to make them work for the betterment of the society.
2.
World over
2% of assets are owned by women, so since 98% of property is owned by
50% of the population i.e. men, hence women must get free property at
the cost of men.
This is another grossly incorrect statement propagated by feminists
and is not true because till date no authentic data source has been
traced to, which scientifically proves the contention and it’s virtually
impossible to do so as no one has access to this level of global data.
And any amount of sample study done won’t suffice because no statistical
model can simulate data for the entire globe with dynamics so varying
and so complex. Secondly, even if we hypothetically assume that the
contention is true, even then, men own those assets by sheer virtue of
their grit, determination and hard work. No law was ever framed to have
men a free run on properties by virtue of their relationship status that
would enrich themselves. Then, why do we want to enrich women by
robbing things off men? And such a mathematically weak argument coming
from an eminent lawyer and a graduate from Harvard Law School is equally
shamming for India.
3. This law is gender-neutral as both husband and wife can apply for divorce.
This a grossly misleading and untrue statement When it comes to
property division, only husband’s property will be considered and even
if wife owns property she can keep it, while claim a share in husband’s
property.
4. We are only considering post-marital property but will take into account inherited and inheritable property.
This is a big grossly misleading statement. SIFF has seen the draft
of the bill, which clearly mentions that any property owned by the
husband at the time of divorce, whether it is inherited, inheritable or
self-acquired, shall be considered for division. However, our learned
law minster chose to mislead and said we are talking of only post
marital property, however, inherited and inheritable property shall be
taken into account while deciding the case. Does this mean this was
deliberate attempt at misleading the members of the parliament to get
this bill passed ?
Money and Property Transactions in Courts will lead to massive
corruption and extortion. Lawyers have something to be happy about this
IRBM law. But, the common man will suffer very badly. We have to wake up
to the new reality that most men are losing faith on Indian Family
court system and judiciary.
Leaving the whole issue to Judiciary is not good idea. There may be
some good judges, but that does not mean enoromous powers and distrition
of wresting someone’s property be vested with lower judiciary. Most
poor people will lose their property running around courts for years and
paying lawyer fees.
We will see lawyers welcoming laws that give more and more power to
law enforcement systems, because they are bound to gain a lot from
people’s misery. When Govt planned to amend Criminal Procedure Code to
reduce arrests under 498a to stop its misuse, lawyers protested against
this move claiming they will not be able to make big money from bail
fees from men and their families.
Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mahapatra said during that debate that
according to Transparency International 36% of Indian Judiciary is
corrupt. Now, the same corrupt Judiciary will decide how to divide the
property of husband and his parents to give to the wife.
Law Minister Kapil Sibal has nothing to say about forcing parents to
give a share of their property to daughters, when people are not
following this law. Yet, he is interested in giving someone’s property
to daughter-in-law, if she decides get divorced for their son. In fact,
their son can not even oppose the divorce, that she files.
Kapil Sibal has made the women’s empowerment into a zero sum win lose
game. He believes if women have to gain, men have to lose badly. This
will not auger well for Indian society on a long run.
We hereby most respectfully demand that the marriage law amendment bill
not be introduced in Loksabha in this form and that he Honourable
Minister of Law and justice call for an open debate on the pros and cons
of this law and clarify the reasons why he chose to be generous with
misleading statements and so economical with the truth.
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