Mr Moily needs to do refresher course in Family law

Law minister Moily has been in news ever since he became, well, law minister. He has been making all the right noises like: make fast-track courts, finish pending cases within 3 years, decide divorce cases within 1 year, reduce pendency of cases, accountability of judges, and so on.

Only time will tell whether all or any of these can materialize. My best wishes to him if he is sincerely doing all these things, rather than just making tall promises to an Indian public which has grown highly suspicious and cautious of courts, lawyers, and police.

But in a recent interview, it was perplexing to read when he says Indian family laws (matrimony, divorce etc) are slightly biased towards men. Hellooooo? If you read Hindu Family Law, then it is clear that almost all of the sections are worded in gender-neutral way, e.g. HMA 24 on maintenance during court proceedings can provide maintenance to needy party, be it wife or husband. Of course given practical situations, it is used mostly by wives. Many other sections especially related to maintenance, e.g. HAMA 18 are specifically meant to provide maintenance to wife/children with man/husband having the sole responsibility.

This is the excerpt of interview with Mr Moily:

http://business.in.com/interview/magazine-extra/m-veerappa-moily-people-are-going-to-goondas-as-faith-in-the-judiciary-has-eroded/9122/1

There is also some talk about your attempts at improving gender equality in Indian laws. Could you elaborate?
There are many laws in the country that are in favour of men and put women in a disadvantageous position. We are trying to set that right.

In adoption, women sometimes face a problem. In divorce petitions when one spouse holds up marriage, the other cannot marry again. I am trying to sanitise Acts which have a gender bias. Indian laws are skewed in favour of the man to a certain extent, which needs to be corrected.

Comments: Either Mr Moily should come in the open with the list of such biased laws, or stop giving utopia like statements to media who will lap it up and publish it for the 'benefit' of public. Such a statement could only mean that the law minister has forgotten much of the law which he once practised as a lawyer.

Even supreme court judges had asked a man to wait for few more months who has been fighting to get divorce from wife for 17 years. All this after he was acquitted of charges like "he bathes like a dog" from his lovely wife (on paper). Such is the so called 'bias' in law and judiciary towards men.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wife-is-always-right-says-SC/articleshow/4553002.cms

So it is clear that neither Indian laws, nor Indian judiciary has bias towards men. It is the judicial system where the needy will always get crushed under the weight of bureaucracy, inefficiency, corruption of legal and judicial fraternity, and so on.

Signing Hague Convention is the right thing, crying about NRI brides is not!

National Commission for Women (NCW) has asked government to sign international convention of Hague, ostensibly to protect NRI brides.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100109/1416/tnl-ncw-asks-govt-to-sign-international.html

Sat, Jan 9 06:42 PM New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) The National Commission for Women today asked the Indian government to sign the international convention of Hague on laws of marriage as well as safety of women to help protect NRI brides. Speaking at a seminar on women''s issues at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas here, NCW Chairperson Girija Vyas said, most of the cases of divorce and separation of NRI brides create problems as the laws of the land are different in India and in the country where these women live.

Comments: Only problem with above statement is that justice is quick and transparent in foreign countries... Only in India a divorce can take 17 years and still Supreme court judge will condescendingly advise the husband to wait for a few more months since he has waited for 17 years.

The real story is that signing the Hague convention is the right thing to do, and better to do it late than never. It has been triggered by the fact of recent cases coming to Supreme court where SC had to send the parties back to foreign courts since India is not signatory to Hague convention. For example, recently there was a recent high profile case which went to Supreme Court, about a child Aditya Vora whose joint custody granted by US courts to NRI father was violated by mother who had come with child to India and had gone missing with the child. Eventually the Supreme Court had to ask CBI to trace the child. Read here.

If India was signatory to Hague convention, the mother would not have been able to violate US court orders with such impunity. And the child will not unnecessarily have to travel to US and then back to India, just because Indian supreme court is helpless!

Former SC Judge and chairman of the Law Commission of India A.R.Lakshmanan has strongly recommended that India should sign the Hague Convention at the earliest. Signing Hague Convention will strongly discourage either of the warring spouses from indulging in cross border parental child abduction. Read here.

Canadian Parliament Considers Equal Parenting Bill

Way to go!

http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=3995

From the news item:

As MP Raymonde Folco said,

"Equal parenting means that 50 per cent of the time a child would be with one parent and 50 per cent with the other... That’s so that the two parents can come together for the good of the child...But the basic line is a 50-50 proposition, and this is to help the child grow up with the help of both parents."

The Canadian Equal Parenting Council, a coalition of 40 organizations that promote equally shared parenting, supports the bill.

Courts help confirm woman's marriage in 21 years

It took this woman 21 years to prove that she was indeed married to a man who had denied so.

Mangalsutra not a must for Hindu marriage: HC

The efficiency of Indian justice system has dropped below the pacific ocean's deepest point.

India's IPC 498A now internationally famous

From article here: http://www.internationalfamilylawfirm.com/2009/03/indias-notorious-section-498a-divorce.html

The result has been that when a marriage breaks up the woman is often able to get her husband and many of his family members arrested by simply filing a claim of cruelty and persuading the local police to arrest the so-called wrongdoers. This is much more effective than initiating an ordinary case for divorce. In the case of non-resident Indians the process has often proved calamitous for the husband. The spouses have an argument. She runs off to India, often with the children and as many of the assets as she can grab. She immediately starts a Section 498A case in India and then sues for divorce and custody in India. The husband cannot step foot in India because he will be arrested. Meanwhile his relatives in India are clamoring for him to settle up with his wife because they have been in jail or are fearful that that will happen. The Supreme Court of India has described such conduct as “legal terrorism.”