Aggrieved men demand judicial reforms and plead for treatment with respect

The organisations for aggrieved husbands have demanded a series of judicial reforms for an "un-biased" interpretation of all women-oriented laws.

In a representation to the law minister Veerappa Moily, the husbands have demanded a "treatment with respect and the dignity for husbands, fathers and mother-in-laws by the judiciary," instead of looking at them as guilty.

Besides, simplifying court process, preventing multiple litigations under various laws seeking same relief, transparency, change of procedures for faster disposal of cases along with a change in the legal and social presumption of "victim women criminal men syndrome" is being sought.

"We want the judicial reforms to include the intent for even husbands to get the relevant relief and justice, get out of the court battle and move on with life and restore our faith in the justice system," said Pandurang Katti of Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), an organisation of aggrieved husbands.

"There are too many laws in the country against the husband in civil, criminal and quasi-criminal arenas which do not have standard procedures of normal laws applied to them. There are also multifarious laws for a same relief. For instance, there are 5 laws on maintenance from a husband. This needs to change and complete gender equity, equality and fairness be brought about. The laws need to harmonised and equalised by gender," said Katti.

"There are multiple procedures which tend to become procedural harassment for the husband and their families. This should change. The heavy procedure need to be lightened and made more litigant friendly. A key example is on handling cases where in a husband or wife is from a different station. In such a case the standard practice should be to provide two or three continuous dates so that the out of station person can take leave and be through with hearings," he added.

Accordingly, the men want a procedural change in cases being transferred to courts that suit the convenience of the working person should be taken into consideration as there is far more stakeholders who need to be aligned for working spouse. There is also a strong demand from courts to reject alimonies sought from professional wives working as doctors, lawyers, engineers, MBAs, CAs etc prima facie itself.