Introduction to NRI Cell of Commission
The persisting division of 'private'
versus 'public' spaces which views the entry of law in homes as "bull in the
china shop" has been largely responsible for keeping the homes considerably
insulated from the legal system, notwithstanding the fact that some of the
grossest rights' violations happen within the 'sacrosanct' four-walls of the
homes. This dilemma, coupled with the sensitive and delicate nature of
matrimonial relationships per se, are largely responsible for making the entire
gamut of matrimonial disputes one of the most challenging and complex areas for
legal intervention within any system. What makes it further complex
particularly in the Indian context is the fact that in the absence of uniform
civil laws, the personal laws of each religious community continue to be
different in this country, thus making the matrimonial disputes, especially in
inter-religious marriages, even more difficult to deal with.
In this already complex scenario where
matrimonial disputes are placed, the legal complications get multiplied
manifold when a marriage steps out of the borders of a country and therefore
the boundaries of the country's legal system, in a phenomenon that has come to
be known as the "NRI marriages". These marriages have to then
enter the domain - often called the 'maze' - of private international law that
deals with the interplay and conflict of laws of different countries, which
makes the issues therein that much more complex as will be explained later
hereunder.
Even though this is a gender-neutral term, typically the "NRI
marriages", as generally understood, are between an Indian woman
from India and an Indian man residing in another country (thus NRI -
non-resident Indian), either as Indian citizen (when he would legally be an
'NRI') or as citizen of that other country (when he would legally be a PIO -
person of Indian origin). With the characteristic Indians' penchant for
migration to foreign countries, such alliances are seen as the most coveted
ones in Indian society, promising greener pastures for not just the woman but
her entire family.
In the eagerness not to let go of such lucrative association
proposal, the families totally ignore even the common cautions that are
observed in traditional matchmaking. They also ignore that in case of things
going awry in an NRI marriage, the woman's recourse to justice is greatly
constrained by the reason that such marriage are not governed any more by only
the Indian legal system but by the far more complex private international laws
involving the legal system of the other country too. They even ignore the plain
and simple fact that just logistically for a woman to negotiate her way to
justice across thousands of miles would be a thoroughly exasperating
experience. The aggravated risks in such marriages, the woman being isolated
far away from home in an alien land, inevitably facing constraints of language,
communication, lack of knowledge of local criminal justice, police and legal
system, lack of support network of friends and family to turn to, lack of
immediate and readily available monetary support and a place to take shelter
in, are issues that no one likes to talk or hear about at the time of marriage.
It is therefore hardly surprising that there is growing evidence today that
even as the number of NRI marriages is escalating by thousands every year, with
the increasing Indian Diaspora, the number of matrimonial and related disputes
in the NRI marriages have also risen proportionately, infact at most places
much more than proportionately.
Issues that arise in NRI
marriages:-
-
Woman married to NRI who was abandoned even before being
taken by her husband to the foreign country of his residence - after a
short honeymoon he had gone back, promising to soon send her ticket that never
came. In many instances the woman would already have been pregnant when he left
and so both she and the child (who was born later) were abandoned. The husband
never called or wrote and never came back again. The in-laws who could still be
in India would either plead helplessness or flatly refuse to help.
-
Woman who went to her husband's home in the other country
only to be brutally battered, assaulted, abused both mentally and physically,
malnourished, confined and ill treated by him in several other ways. She was
therefore either forced to flee or was forcibly sent back. It could also be
that she was not allowed to bring back her children along. In many cases, the
children were abducted or forcibly taken away from the woman.
-
Woman who was herself or whose parents were held to ransom
for payment of huge sums of money as dowry, both before and after the marriage,
her continued stay and safety in her husband's country of residence depending
on that.
-
Woman who reached the foreign country of her husband's
residence and waited at the international airport there only to find that her
husband would not turn up at all.
-
Woman who was abandoned in the foreign country with
absolutely no support or means of sustenance or escape and without even the
legal permission to stay on in that country.
-
Woman who learnt on reaching the country of her NRI
husband's residence that he was already married in the other country to another
woman, whom he continued to live with. He may have married her due to pressure
from his parents and to please them or sometimes even to use her like a
domestic help.
-
Woman who later learnt that her NRI husband had given false
information on any or all of the following: his job, immigration status,
earning, property, marital status and other material particulars, to con her
into the marriage.
-
Woman whose husband, taking advantage of more lenient
divorce grounds in other legal systems, obtained ex-parte decree of divorce in
the foreign country through fraudulent representations and/ or behind her back,
without her knowledge, after she was sent back or forced to go back to India or
even while she was still there.
-
Woman who was denied maintenance in India on the pretext
that the marriage had already been dissolved by the court in another
country.
-
Woman who approached the court, either in India or in the
other country, for maintenance or divorce but repeatedly encountered technical
legal obstacles related to jurisdiction of courts, service of notices or
orders, or enforcement of orders or learnt of the husband commencing
simultaneous retaliatory legal proceeding in the other country to make her
legal action.
-
Woman who sought to use criminal law to punish her husband
and in- laws for dowry demands and/ or, or matrimonial cruelty and found that
the trial could not proceed as the husband would not come to India and submit
to the trial or respond in any way to summons, or even warrant of arrest.
-
Woman who was coaxed to travel to the foreign country of
the man's residence and get married in that country, who later discovered that
Indian courts have even more limited jurisdiction in such cases.
-
Woman who had to fight nasty legal battles for custody of
her children and for child support, and to bring them back with her after she
was divorced or forced to leave, sometimes even facing charges of illegally
abducting her own children.
-
Many women have also approached the Commission seeking
redressal of their grievances having been deserted by their NRI Spouses.
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