‘Just’ Business

Khap Panchayat or THE GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM

Recently a judgement was delivered by THE GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM (will get shortly into why I call it GREAT) convicting members of a ‘Khap Panchayat‘ who ordered honour killing of a couple. Almost all the sections of media hailed it as a Landmark Judgement. While, the media remains ever-ready in finding faults and for condemning the acts of Khap Panchayats, this very media never ever crosses the line of the GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM. And when some daring ones like that of TEHELKA and Honourable & fearless Mr. Prashant Bhushan tested waters  by openly declaring that atleast ‘half of last 16 Chief Justices of India were corrupt‘, the Supreme Court was quick in taking suo moto cognizance and started contempt proceedings against Mr. Bhushan.  It’s worthy to mention here that Mr. Bhushan has one of the most clean records and means what he says. And, that our SC seldom (rather never) takes suo moto action against lower/high court judges for routinely issuing various illegal judgements based on their whims and fancies.

While there are several reasons apart from above which make up the GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM for what it is, like CJI office not ready to go under RTI, Judges showing inertia in declaring assets, a hidden collegium based elevation of judges which even considers corrupt judges like Dinakaran …..  etc., here I’m going to throw light on the GREATness by discussing some of the judgments which amount to harassment and legal extortion of husbands.  And, by all means this is like touching the tip of an iceberg of such harassed and extorted lot.

Very recently there was a judgement which was flashed in media –

“Filing false case against in-laws is cruelty”  (english version) (hindi version)

It’s good to see that court recognized wife’s IPC 498A complaint as false and granted divorce to the distraught husband for the cruelty his relatives, mother and he himself faced at hands of his wife and police. Afterall, these poor fellow were made to lead lives of criminals in prison for 2 long years and that too on a false complaint !! This is one of the faces of the GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM.

Now, before you think that finally justice was done in favour of husband, there is more to it than meets the eye. Let’s have a look at the full judgement of this case.  The order goes like this:

(i) The marriage of the appellant and respondent stands dissolved by a decree of divorce under section 13(1)(ia);

(ii) The appellant shall pay sum of Rs.3 lacs by way of permanent alimony for the maintenance of the girl child. The said amount of Rs.3 lacs shall be invested in fixed deposit in a nationalized bank and the respondent is permitted to

withdraw the interest accrued thereon quarterly. The amount of Rs.3 lacs shall be invested in the fixed deposit within two months from today in the name of the minor child and the respondent would be shown as her guardian;

(iii) The said sum of Rs.3 lacs shall be kept invested in fixed deposit till the child attains majority.

 

Here are my observations from this order:

1)  A husband who himself and his family were at the receiving end of cruelty, asked to pay 3 lacs within 2 months. (Just think, is it easy for a person earning some 5,000-7,000/- per month to arrange this kind of sum?)

2)  The wife is also earning in the same pay range of 5,000-7,000/-.  Hmmm…. what’s this??? When both husband and wife are earning in the same range then why alimony?

3)  Custody of the girl child given to wife on claims that she needs alimony to maintain child. Doesn’t this mean that wife is not capable of maintaining the child?? Then why the custody to wife??

4)   It never occurred to the judges what will a girl child learn from her mother who is herself of sick mentality!!! What do you call a woman who files a false case against his husband and in-laws?? What moral education can she give to her child?? Why deprive the father from the love of his child??

5)  What about the suo moto proceedings of perjury against wife?? Afterall, she lied and set the systems of criminal justice and police in motion against innocents.  — Not punishing such women is the biggest reasons why false cases are on the rise in the country which is crippling the whole judiciary and delaying justice to numerous such innocents.

6) What about compensation to the husband for the loss of precious productive 2 years of his life?? Is this divorce rewarding for the husband or the wife??

Year-on-year increasingly more number of innocent husbands are loosing their self-esteem, reputation and productive years because of the cruel laws like the IPC 498A, Domestic Violence act, Dowry Prohibition act and most importantly because of the GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM.

The Sunday Indian has recently done an exclusive on IPC 498A and concluded that the Law is an ASS

This is not a one off judgement where the wife is rewarded. When it comes to rewarding wives the GREAT system can go to any extent, it can go back to Manu’s time or may be go forward to GOD knows where, to find out ways and means to help the wife. In one of the judgements on maintenance to wife under CrPC 125, where the husband was a student, the court pulled out something from Manu’s time and went on to state that :

the Manu’s mandate in this respect is that beg borrow, or steal, but you must maintain your wife.

. . . . . .

The obligation of a husband to maintain his wife is one arising out of the status of marriage. It is a liability created by the Hindu Law, in respect of the jural relation of a Hindu family and to Article 554 of Mulla’s Hindu Law. A wife is entitled to be maintained by her husband, whether he possesses property or not. Manu as cited in Mitakshara, has enjoined: The aged parents, a virtuous wife and an infant child must be maintained even by doing a hundreds misdeeds.

So, in a single shot, the court advised husband to do whatever (even adopt illegal means!!) but pay to wife. Cannot be a better example than this on the legal extortion of husband. Though, the courts have routinely talked about and held the rights of a wife and taught and ordered husbands to perform their duties like above,  these same very courts never defined the duties of wife nor did they venture into prescribing what would be the legal recourse available to husband should the wife not follow her duties.

Although I’m no supporter of Khap Panchayats, I feel, it’s imperative to evaluate if the GREAT INDIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM is any better than the Khap Panchayats. Just like Khaps rule with utmost and unchallenged supremacy, this GREAT system also remains largely unchallenged, for whosoever challenges it faces contempt proceeding.

Khaps grant honor killings in one shot, the GREAT system kills husbands piece-by-piece and make them live thru their humiliation and helplessness. You can read more here about honour killing using IPC 498a.

Khaps rules are mostly unwritten, the punishment though is fixed for each type of offence. There are laws/rules/acts/case laws which guide the GREAT system, but it seldom delivers similar justice in similar conditions,  except that it never initiates perjury proceedings against erring wives.

Khaps punish men and women alike, the GREAT system goes out of the way to help women play extortion games.

The inaction/wrong action/slow action of the GREAT system are one of the prime reasons why India is today facing many internal problems the most significant of which is the present Maoists issue. More on this in some other post.

Disclaimer:  The views expressed are based on presonal observations on and perceptions of the different events occurring in the Indian  society and put here to have a healthy discussions on the state of affairs prevailing in present India