INTRODUCTION
Marriage is a beautiful moment of one’s life but sometimes it may land into space that no one would ever want from their marriage i.e. Divorce. Divorce is usually a result of incompatibility between individuals and it is not just as simple as dismantling the institution of marriage and start living separately, it brings a lot of financial and psychological burdens along with trust issues for future relationships. In earlier times the divorce rates were usually low, one of the primary reasons was the incapability of women to be financially independent due to their lack of education. This could be one of the reasons which brought the concept of maintenance. The meaning of maintenance in legal terms stands as monetary support to cover the basic standard of living. Divorce might be difficult for both men and women but it leaves an added burden on women to sustain themselves financially. Hence, after divorce, a particular amount of maintenance was given by the earning man to a woman so that she could sustain herself. Nowadays the increase in education and qualification levels of women has led them to achieve financial independence. However, the laws regulating maintenance laws are still the same. Maintenance cases have been dealt with by various private as well as common legislations.
ANALYSING LEGISLATION RELATED TO MAINTENANCE
The issue of maintenance has been well defined in various statutes of the country. The stance towards maintenance cases varies from legislation to legislation. Whether it be personal laws (like Hindu Laws and Muslim laws) or common laws (like the Criminal Procedure Code 1973[1]), all of them have some distinctive features although with some significant similarities.
In Criminal Procedure Code 1973, Section 125[2] suffixes the liability of maintenance of wife, children, and parents on the concerned man. Section 37 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954[3] speaks on the same line as CrPC, 1973, and considers it the duty of the husband to provide maintenance for his wife according to his ability and property. Both Muslim Law and Section 36 of the Indian Divorce Act, 1869[4] (which governs matrimonial issues of Christians), have quite similar stances on the provisions for men, as there are no clauses for the maintenance of a husband in either of them, just like previously mentioned legislations. Although two such acts weigh both husband and wife on the same scale and acknowledge that even husbands might need and seek maintenance reliefs. These are Section 24 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1995[5], and Section 40 of the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936[6] which focuses less on gender per se and more on the incapability of parties in maintaining themselves.
Above above-stated legislations depict biases towards wives and ignorance towards the rights of husbands. Due to this bias, the bigger question that arises is Does the Right to Equality apply here?
RIGHT TO EQUALITY
History has been very discriminative towards women concerning their rights, power, and opportunities for them. It has been a male-dominated society that has favoured men over women, but as time has evolved, women’s roles and rights are gradually recognized by both law and society. This gradual increase has been significant but might have left some implications and leads us to question. While ensuring recognition of the rights of women, did we leave the rights of men untouched in some places?
The above question might seem implausible but it has significant importance. In the Indian constitution, Articles 14 to 18[7] define the Right to Equality, which at large speaks about equality of every person irrespective of their sex, caste, gender, etc. and this equality shouldn’t be denied by the state/ government. The provisions of the Right to Equality don’t seem biased towards any particular gender, sex, caste, religion, etc. but have been extensively used as a tool for establishing women’s rights, which has left significant changes in women’s rights in real life and not only in theory. Although it had left an indelible impact in establishing and recognizing women’s rights but has somehow turned a blind eye towards men’s rights. When most of the existing laws in the country about the maintenance don’t recognize the idea that men might also need relief or compensation, it is high time we give importance to the Right to Equality with equal emphasis on both men and women and put a step forward in amending existing laws towards having some minute changes or amendments which ensures equality for both women and men.
NEED FOR AMENDMENTS TO PROTECT MEN’S RIGHTS?
These biases towards wives might have very serious implications on the individuals and even society at large as they could promote situations like capable women preferring not to work just because of maintenance money, women marrying with an ultimate goal of seeking maintenance, increasing rates of divorce cases, women harassing men about giving divorce and claiming maintenance, the financial burden on husband, promising a permanent debit form his income, which even may extent to a part in his property according to some laws, etc.
All these implications and other impacts raise alarm for amendments in these legislations according to the changing needs of the society. Most of these legislations are half a century old and were framed and implemented according to that time. Around that time, the husbands were the primary and in the majority of cases, the only source of income for the family. All other members of the family (wife, children, parents) were dependent on his income and lacked the necessary skills to earn and would not be able to sustain themselves if their husband stopped paying them. All the laws that provide maintenance to only wives, children, parents, or either of them were good enough and fulfilled the situations of that time, but the applicability of these laws doesn’t seem to have the same impact in the current scenario. As the time has changed now, husbands aren’t the primary or only source of income for the family. In many cases, women have proved their roles in contributing to the family income and have the financial independence or at least the qualifications to achieve financial independence (with the increase in their education levels), and they have proved that they can sustain themselves on their own. There are even cases in which the wife is more qualified and has more income than his husband and also cases where the husband is fully dependent on the income of the wife for his survival. These old laws need to be flexible enough to be applicable in such cases and provide justice accordingly. The old laws need to evolve with time or they might lose their significance, this evolution might need some amendments here and there in the acts.
CONCLUSION
Change is a necessity, especially in the legal field. Usually, the laws are formed according to societal conditions and people’s behaviour. But with the evolving times the societal condition changes, and people’s thoughts and behaviour change calling for a necessary change in the legal framework as well. That’s why the Indian constitution provides for an Amendment clause under Article 368[8], to maintain the essence of the laws with the evolving time. This evolution of laws is necessary and a halt in such evolution might lead to injustice. Hence, it is high time we need some more gender-neutral and equal laws in this domain, especially concerning maintenance cases.
Author(s) Name: Navanshu Pawar (Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore)
Reference(s):
[1] The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, S 125, No. 2, Act of Parliament, 1974 (India)
[2] The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, S 125, No. 2, Act of Parliament, 1974 (India)
[3] Special Marriage Act, 1954, S 37, No. 43, Act of Parliament, 1954 (India)
[4] The Divorce Act, 1869, S 36, No. 4, Act of Parliament, 1869 (India)
[5] Hindu Marriage Act, 1995, S 24, No. 25, Acts of Parliament, 1955 (India)
[6] Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, S 40, No. 3, Acts of Parliament, 1936 (India)
[7] Indian Constitution, Article 14-18 (India)
[8] Indian Constitution, Article 368 (India)
