Plight of Men in a Broken Marriage

Marriage was long seen as a sacred bond in India. Divorce was an extreme measure, and most of the time, families on both sides attempted to reach an agreement in the best interests of the children and wife. Things are changing, and one out of every 100 marriages is being taken to court, either through the fault of the husband or the woman. As a result, every rule that controls the rights of the husband is primarily in favour of the woman, who is seen as the primary victim.

Men don’t get treated with sympathy when they are taken to court. However must be their social conduct, all the allegations contended by the wife ruins the entire reputation and brings his character and conduct into controversy. There is extreme chaos created by the opposite party to make sure that the man will at least be trapped in some or the other serious section which will take a dozen visits for him to the police, advocate, and court to get rid of. All of this difficulty along with the social stigma of the society regards that man and his family as the torturer. “Every man is innocent until proven guilty” becomes just a principle in theory in cases of divorce and domestic violence filed by women. A bare minimum that a man deserves during legal procedures is cooperation from the people in the society and the least disregard and scrutiny before the final verdict of the court.

Section 498A of IPC entitles the wife to file a complaint against the husband. The similar right has been given under Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Such is the level of recognition to a wife to address her problem with the husband if she has been tortured in any form in the marriage. While for a husband there lies section 13 of The Hindu Marriage Act for alleging divorce in the court if it is non-mutual. It’s a rarest of rare situation if man has been found going to the court for being harassed in the domestic environment by the wife because even fellow men would start demeaning and disregarding victimised men as behaving unmanly. Section 498A in a legal context goes seriously untouched upon natural justice as the words of the man is probably secondary. Fundamentally forming analysis, the basic rights of the men go practically distorted, and there’s no resort unless he gets relieved with the help of the advocate, and simply kneels to the conditions put forth for maintenance and alimony.

Law also gets critically harsh on men seeking custody of the child on divorce. Unfortunately, it is generally impossible for a father to prove his responsible parentship, thus, the guardianship or custody of the child is a question to which the mother is the answer. This primary rule is legit followed in 90% of the cases. It gets really difficult for a man despite his sincerity in the child’s upbringing to prove his contributions, especially when the father works outside, and is not able to commit enough time to the child due to his work commitments. Yet, this should not naturally decide the nature of the mother as appropriate for the child. With the evolution of time and diversity in the type of cases, complexities in the relationships have reached the next level. Law should take into account things associated with the habit, general attitude, love and attention towards the child, etc., about both the parent before deciding the custody of the child.

A non-cognizable offence is lodged in the name of the man when he has to deal with the complaint filed for committing “cruelty” against the wife. Cruelty is in itself a very broad term, and to determine its parameters, it is not defined in any of the laws. Before a case is registered, there is hardly any concern shown on upfront contradictions in the fact. Moreover, the SHO never really circumspect before registering the offence. Any complaint which could be comprehended as vexatious prima facie should be dismissed at the lowest of the filing stages. Unfortunately, there are ample cases that were taken strict critical hold only when they reached the respective High Court. It is thus evident that there has been misuse of the section primarily enunciated for the protection of women. There has been a steep increase in false complaint cases filed by the wife and this has in in turn falsely sentenced the husband party with loss of reputation and time.

The best of the PSU’s and private companies in India stick with the principle of suspending their employees who are vexed under trial for non-cognizable and non-compoundable offence. When such false allegations are made by the wife for her benefit by hauling alimony and discharging herself from obligations to stay in a marriage. When a husband is falsely vexed by the police and in court, he is far from any legal assistance to contend on his behalf at his workplace to save his job.

When FIR is lodged on a Friday, such a complaint leaves the husband entangled to get himself released on bail for the next two days at least. And, when the female relatives of the men are also named in the complaint, it is a very helpless situation for the man to protect his family in the absence of any strong or physical evidence. “Bail is the rule, jail is an exception” is the stone graphed principle, but it isn’t as practically applied as it should be. The approach that is adopted in any other cognizable and non-compoundable offence should be applied here as well. Moreover, an arrest should not be an implied step against the complaint filed under Section 498A. Above all, this cannot be denied that Section 498 A has done more bad than it procured to do well, and it seriously demands an amendment that should be in equal parlance in terms of protection for men as well.

In cases where there is no visible harm to the complainant, there is no analogy drawn to keep the Husband under judicial custody. The female members of the Husband’s family, especially elderly members are absolutely incapacitated to do anything against the complainant, the basis here against such arrest makes no sense. It is very disgusting that one dares to file complaint with a fictional story and even though the nature of the complaint shows up to be quite evident, it destroys the life of the man to an irreparable extent, affecting him, his future, and his family. Filing a legal suit of domestic violence and dowry has become just like a negotiable instrument of a failed marriage for a wife to portray her husband as the violent and misbehaving predator from whom she seeks to have maintenance and alimony to lead an uncompromised life of her choice.

In such instances especially, a speedy disposal of a trial is extremely significant as it is not just the husband but his family including female members are vexed along with him, which portrays them as a torturer and greedy against the woman brought as a daughter-in-law from another family.

Times and again it has been laid down by the supreme court that there should be a humane approach of the police before arresting the husband and his family, after-all the rule of law is also governed by a vital cardinal principle of “presumption of innocence”. The procedure enunciated in section 41 of CrPC also has to be strictly adhered to in matters of Section 498A. The equality before law under Article 14 and right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 should not be exonerated because of mere primary impression that the man is liable under Section 498A.

Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 was enacted for the protection of women from any kind of torture of the husband and his family inflicted out of cupidity to extract money and property from woman’s family. Unsurprisingly, this is just another legislation that has gasped serious fatalities for the husband and his family. Though unfortunate Men are frequently reported to commit suicide when they are falsely alleged of demanding dowry and inflicting torture on the wife. The worst of such matters is, when the husband couldn’t sustain the torture and gives up his life as a final answer to show up his innocence. The tyranny caused by false allegation is so cruel to their life that even shelter is sold off after paying alimony filed on false ground storied by the wife. The mental trauma and legal vexation take a serious toll on the husband’s reputation especially when his family also gets tugged similarly. National Crime Bureau is an administrative body that released data reporting, an approx. of 22% of men more in comparison to women have committed suicide due to domestic violence. Thus, a gender-neutral approach is the need of the hour, and welfare associations for men should be established where they could seek mental counselling, and address their trauma. Awareness programs for men’s well-being should be prioritised as much as that of women. As of now, there has been no men-centric law for the protection of men against unlawful activities by women.