In the first part we covered how 498a can make life hell for married men in India. In Part 2, we will study how the two Civil/Quasi Civil cases can be used to make a married man’s life hell even further. I am clubbing these two together, as main incentive of both these cases is to absolutely exploit the married man financially till he completely breaks down. That being said, the recent Rajnesh Vs Neha Judgement by Indian Supreme Court has lowered the impact considerably when the wife is working or has worked before or is highly qualified. You can find more information about this on MensRights.net. But in case of Housewives/Homemakers, husbands are definitely screwed. We will now see how these both laws can screw up lives of married men by making them bonded slaves of wives for life.
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (drafted by Feminist)
This law was drafted by a prominent Feminist lawyer in 2005, and became a law in 2006. Government and Feminists at that time felt that 498a wasn’t enough to harass the husband’s family, or they simply forgot that 498a exists, so they decided to gift this law to warring wives, who could afford a lawyer to file a court case. India is probably the only country in the world that has TWO DV laws for women. The DV Act case runs in Civil Court, and is quasi Civil in nature. It is a clumsily drafted law and is borderline unconstitutional, but hey, who cares as long as it overpowers women, right? The wife can file a case in Civil court under PWDVA 2005 against husband and his entire family. Her allegations need to be investigated by a Protection Officer, who needs to submit a DIR (Domestic Incident Report) after investigation. However, this process is rarely followed and clueless husbands are left on the mercy of their lawyers and judiciary.
Using this act, wives can demand below:
- Right to Residence in Husband’s or Husband’s parent’s house
- Interim and Permanent Maintenance (Free money)
- Child Visitation (if by some miracle Husband has children with him)
- Monetary Compensation
Again, almost all of this is provided as part of Interim Orders, which means none of the evidence is even considered. Domestic Violence itself is not clearly defined, as it includes physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse. I have seen cases filed based on stuff like “I wasn’t given enough food”, “My mother in law taunted me” etc. When you keep such laws open to interpretation, misuse is bound to happen.
Right to Residence
This is the biggest pain point of DV Act 2005. Instead of creating DV Shelters for aggrieved women, Government and Judiciary decided it will best to provide shelter to women in the same home where she is facing the alleged Domestic Violence. So a woman can file a DV complaint, and apply for Right to Residence as Interim Relief in a house where she had a domestic relationship with her husband. This house can be her husband’s house or her in law’s house. And the Interim Orders are usually passed on 2nd or 3rd date of the court case. Earlier at least the Husband’s parent’s houses were safe, but now after this “landmark” (read biased) judgement by Indian Supreme Court a wife can take over any house she had a domestic relationship with the husband. The implications of these are huge, the elderly parents along with their son will be thrown out on streets, as usually it is impossible to live with their fake accuser Daughter In Law in the same household. There have been cases where families are living on rent and their Daughter In Law has taken over their entire multi-bedroom house for herself. So good luck owning a property in India if one wants to marry.
Interim Maintenance (Beg, Borrow or Steal)
Interim Maintenance is nothing but extortion. There is no Feminist in the world who can convince me that a woman who has means to file Civil court cases is unable to maintain herself. Wife makes tall demands like she is unable to survive, and puts on Interim Application to get hefty maintenance. Now the poor men have the misconception that well earning wife will never get maintenance as common sense dictates, but this is India. Here common sense has no place in courts. The Judges try their level best to grant ridiculous Interim Maintenance to wives, and then the wives simply stop attending the court dates. The cases then drag for years, and Husbands keep on paying monthly maintenance. Famous judgements have asked jobless husbands to Beg, Borrow or Steal, but pay maintenance to their wives. In some cases, men have died in jail for not paying maintenance, differently abled Husbands have been asked to pay maintenance to fully abled wife and physically challenged men have used crowdfunding to fund alimony. Indian Judiciary has no concept of “Durational Maintenance” which is a norm in developed nations, which makes sure wife gets a job instead of becoming a freeloader for life.
The Dreaded Ex Parte
Ex Parte is a legal concept in which if the Respondent (in this case Husband) doesn’t attend the legal proceedings, the court treats it as Ex Parte case and passes orders against him as per the requests of the Petitioner (wife). In most cases, the cunning wives give wrong address of the Husband, so that he doesn’t get the notice served and fails to attend the dates. This leads to the case becoming Ex Parte and the interim orders of exorbitant maintenance are passed, and husband doesn’t even know he owes money till he gets a notice about arrest warrant for not paying maintenance (notice is issued after wife files Execution petition, this time with correct address). In some cases, the eager Judges pass Ex Parte order even the husband and his lawyer miss a single date, because they have the habit of treating the Petitioner as their own daughter. During Covid pandemic, passing of such orders is rampant, as the women organizations and NGOs pressurized the Governments and Judiciary to pass rampant maintenance order to so called aggrieved wives. Obviously these orders can be set aside, but the mental agony and panic it causes to Husbands is unparalleled.
CrPC 125
CrPC 125 is one of those laws which considers women as infants who need support throughout their life. The very definition says that a girl needs to be maintained by the Father till she is unmarried, and post marriage she has to be maintained by her Husband. But Feminists will never protest against this law, like they did vs Adultery Law, because as long as Inequality benefits women, they are fine. In CrPC 125 as well, all maintenance atrocities like Interim Maintenance and Ex Parte apply. The real kicker is, wives file CrPC 125 as well along with DV Act, and get maintenance in both, so the husbands have to fight both cases. But at least now with Rajnesh Vs Neha judgement, courts are asking wives to submit details of all maintenance cases in Income Affidavit.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, both these laws treat men as bonded labor and a slave for life. Men have to pay maintenance for life, even if the marriage lasted for only 1 day. There is no concept of Durational Maintenance in India, because we are still living in 1950s as per Judiciary. Recently, a woman filed a maintenance case on her husband who is suffering from cancer, and suggested that he should sell his kidney to give her money as he is going to die anyways. So unless men want to get exploited financially and loose their or their parent’s property, they shouldn’t marry. In the next part, we will cover Husband Murder and Dowry Death.
PS: If you are one the unfortunate men who are fighting cases, please head over to MensRights.Net and seek guidance.