Women Marriage And Divorce Laws In India

By Author: Rakesh Taneja
Total Articles: 1
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Of late, speaking about it in context with the developments in the last one decade or so, dissolution of marriages in India has taken a trend which is fairly disturbing comparing the conventional value that used to be attached to the relationship between spouses in a marriage. Even today marriage as a relationship is considered valid for seven consecutive births of the spouses and the family system recognizes the same accordingly.

There are no no-fault grounds of divorce available in almost all the family laws that exist in the System. Except for a mutual consent divorce where the parties can submit their voluntary consent before the Court to seek dissolution of their marriage. No-fault ground would not be available to one of the spouses to be unilaterally successful in divorcing the other spouse.

Coming over to the brief provided to me for writing this Article, I may want to say that there may not have been many high-profile divorce cases in the business world in India in the recent years or if there were any they might have occurred discreetly without being taken into the limelight for various reasons including ...
... no intentions of the parties to bring their family disputes in the open. It can therefore be stated that these cases might not have had any affect on the companies involved. More so because in the divorce proceedings parties participate in their individual capacities and when they consent to divorce and there is no contest to the claim of one against the other for divorce, the process of settlement is smooth and without much being brought into the public domain.

I can not recall and provide any example of a case in which a businesswoman was betrayed by her partner, specifically because of her being away and working too much. On the other hand I may be able to elaborate on the facts of a case (without disclosing the identities of the parties) in which the working woman placed better financially in comparison to the man impressed upon and sought divorce by mutual consent from the husband by deliberately creating circumstances and emotional conditions that forced the husband to agree. It was a situation where the husband was much better in terms of status in society being a high profile Government Officer with a great future ahead but with a middle class mindset and income.

In my considered opinion, this was a case where the woman was obviously influenced by her status at her workplace with a reasonably good financial position to express her desire for dissolution of marriage in which lives of two small children were actually ruined. The parties had a Love Marriage and I confirmed from the woman - very specifically - she was not cheating the man but just did not want to continue with a person who would not fit into her scheme of things despite being a good person and a very good father. The parties entered mutual consent divorce to avoid being maligned in public besides bringing bad name to their families and embarrassment for the children.

I have to assert that this was a case where the woman betrayed the man influenced by her style of functioning and status at the work place which was different in comparison to the man.

I can say with confidence that increase in power and responsibilities for businesswomen has not changed the trends of cheating at work at least in India because here the relationship of marriage is based more on love, respect, trust and conjugal dependence which are essential ingredients of a successful marriage. Tremendous value that is attached to the relationship between the spouses in a marriage and indulgence of the parties to the cause of family is just so very natural leaving all other priorities of work and career behind.

I can therefore say that marriage as an institution is so very successful in India and almost all marriages last for the life time of the spouses.