Govt brings in Bill to amend Marriage Act, make divorce easier

New Delhi, Apr 30: The government today brought a Bill in the Rajya Sabha to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, seeking to make divorce easier and provide for treatment of adopted children like that of biological ones.

Introducing the Bill–The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010– Minister for Minorities Affairs Salman Khurshid said the government, by further amending the Act, proposed to make divorce easier in case of irretrievable marriages and among consenting adults.

This would ensure that a couple which is forced to live in matrimony out of compulsion, is facilitated to live separately if their marriage is beneficial for neither.

He said in some cases it had been found that after both the parties had applied for divorce by mutual consent, either the husband or the wife failed to appear for the next and subsequent hearings, leaving the other party in duldrums.

The amended legislation would make divorce easier in such cases.

Before the debate began, Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley, made an intervention and said the proposed legislation would encourage misuse and exploitation of women, especially in rural areas.

He said that one of the provisions for divorce–matrimonial default–as mentioned in the new Bill, was heavily loaded in favour of one of the parties and a victim and a perpetrator were both treated equally.

Explaining, he said if one of the parties created conditions for divorce, the other party would be forced to accept and apply for divorce. The creator of the conditions would get benefitted while the other party would be the victim.

He said the situation in India was different than in foreign countries where the ”support system” for wife in such cases was ”extra strong.” Mr Jaitley urged the government to ensure that the Bill ensured that the support system was made strong in India also. (UNI)