What are the Difficulties faced by men in Family Courts ?

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Difficulties faced by men in Family Courts

According to Indian law, a woman can file various charges against men. Marriage is defined as a spiritual union between a man and a woman, and it is governed by many marital laws, such as the Hindu Marriage Act. Personal Marriage Act, for example. Marriage, on the other hand, is a fragile institution anymore. 

Each year, the number of marriages that end in divorce has increased, whether due to the fault of the husband or the woman. Every year, the divorce rate among Indian couples rise. Every year, one out of every 100 marriages is broken and taken to court, according to reports. Due to the rising prevalence of divorce each year, stringent regulations have been enacted to protect the interests of women while downplaying the difficulties that males face in family court.

A family court is a court that hears the matrimonial matter. Divorce cases, property-related cases, restoration cases, and so forth are all included. Unless and until there is a mutual consent divorce, the majority of divorce proceedings are always prejudiced against the husband. The husband not only has to deal with the pain of divorce, but he also has to deal with issues such as FIRs being filed against him, allegations of domestic violence and dowry, maintenance and alimony issues, and so on. 

As a result, a father must also fight for child custody, which usually favors the mother because the mother has primary custody of her child. It has been established and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in several judgments that, unless in instances when the kid is capable of forming his own opinion, it is in the best interests of the child to resolve custody concerns, and the same has been held in Elizabeth R. Dinnshaw v Arvind M.

Dinshaw 1987 AIE 3 In this case, the child was not old enough to develop his own judgment on the question of custody, and the court had to make the decision; notwithstanding the several factors, the court evaluated in resolving the case, the court decided in favor of the mother. In the event of a conflict between the partners, it has been a rule of thumb that the custody of the child would be in the care of the mother. Under Section 498A of the IPC, the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, and the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, a wife has the right to make a complaint against her husband. 

Section 498 A of IPC

According to section 498 of the Criminal Code, which defines cruelty and is repeated in the DV Act, although for the purposes of this article, Sec. 498A would serve, cruelty is defined as follows: This includes both verbal and physical abuse by the husband or his relatives but it is crucial to highlight that, in practice, section 498 of the IPC has washed away this fundamental privilege, since the police rarely listen to the males after a complaint is made by a woman.

 

Furthermore, the subject matter of this statute makes it more difficult. Because the Indian penal code lacks a clear definition of the term "cruelty," everything the husband does that violates societal standards is labeled as cruelty, and FIRs are filed as a result. This makes it tough for the males to deal with because it is a non-bailable and non-compoundable charge. 

It should be highlighted that, when it comes to registering an offense, the police in charge have been known to show no judgment in doing so, despite blatant discrepancies in the complaint submitted before them in certain cases. This, along with the litigant's right to include the husband's family members in the complaint, frequently leads to harassment of the husband and his family by police and investigative officials. 

In Rukmani v Manonmani 2017 SCC OnLine 20343, the Madras court illustrates both the possibility and the difficulties of proving the truth of a vexatious complaint: The District Court declined to dismiss the proceedings and even refused to send the conduct and complaint to the HC, even though the complaint was a falsification and was prima facie to the HC. 

It’s important to note that in the majority of cases of alleged misuse, the courts have been swift to spot the problem and issue necessary orders: R. Ramachandra v. Saritha, 2003

On the another hand, the wife ensures that such complaints are filed on Friday so that the defendant is unable to ask for bail for at least the next two days because the courts are closed on weekends. This was a big issue that the husband and his family had to face, and owing to an increase in the number of false accusations by the wife and the lack of any tangible evidence, Courts are unable to work consciously. 

Even though charge sheets were submitted almost in every case (93.6 percent), but convictions were abysmally low, at around 15%. Something wasn't quite right. According to the study, 372,306 outstanding cases will get 317,000 acquittals at that rate. 

This low conviction rate can be interpreted in two ways: either the inherent nature of domestic violence cases makes it difficult to build cases against the accused, or there are so few cases of proven domestic abuse that the cases and complaints filed are merely intended to harass and intimidate the husband and his family. While none of these claims have been confirmed nor refuted, this statistical figure raises the question of whether the docket is overburdened.

According to the above-mentioned reports, the courts will have to find an alternative mechanism for dealing with the wife's bogus accusations of malicious intent and a way to cope with the cases being completed quickly.

That the courts have previously established guidelines for the handling of complaints filed under Section 498A, and that in the case of Amresh Kumar, the SC attempted to establish the following norms to guarantee that automatic arrest and imprisonment do not become the norm in such cases: Before deciding on whether or not to arrest an accused individual, police officers must complete the checklist. Before proceeding, the police must be satisfied that there is a real case of abuse.

The police decision will be double-checked by the Magistrate.

The court guarantees that instances of domestic abuse/violence are not veraciously recorded and that if they are, bad intents and incorrect judgments are identified early in the investigating process.

Dowry Demands

In India, the different rules dealing with mental abuse of women have also included an interpretation on the protection of men's rights and interests. Several rights provided by India's Preamble have been divided and grouped under various Acts or legislation. 

This article goes even further by considering a broader understanding of these rights in relation to harassment and difficulties faced by men and their family members in society as a result of a complaint or a suit filed by a woman who has taken unfair advantage of the provisions which was introduced to protect her interests in society. 

In India, wedlock between the families of the two persons is considerably more important than wedlock between the two individuals when it comes to weddings. Many ceremonies are performed, as well as certain age-old traditions such as dowry. Dowry, in its most basic form, can be defined as a kind of a gift or money given to the groom by the bride's family members at the time of marriage or after the marriage directly or indirectly given by the bride’s relatives. 

For the sake of the state's peace, the legislature has established the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, which controls and Prohibits numerous illegal actions that are linked with or are the consequence of dowry demands.

Though the act was enacted to protect women, it did not consider its misuse against males in society. However, there are provisions designed especially for that purpose, which has been seen as a double-edged sword. 

Dowry Demand has turned against men in society, with numerous matters being filed every day in police stations or with the country's women's development cell reaffirming these provisions snatching men without giving them a chance to be heard.

In the case of Pushkar Singh, it was discovered that a resident of Lucknow (Pushkar Singh) committed suicide by composing a letter blaming his in-laws completely for his death. Pushkar Singh was wrongfully imprisoned under sections 4984, 323, and 504 of the Indian Penal Code. 

The woman, in this case, filed a complaint against the husband, alleging a bogus dowry demand of Rs. 14,00,000/-. The deceased husband stated in the note that this lawsuit has caused him and his family enormous hardships; they have also sold their home to obtain some financial gain to survive.

Cruelty under the Domestic Violence Act

Minor disputes under matrimonial affairs that have no serious consequences are not considered cruelty. Cruelty must be viewed as an act that is rare, unlike the casually discussed quarrel, and is of a serious nature that may result in grave consequences to either spouse by the other. 

The Domestic Violence Act was created with the sole purpose of reducing violence against women in the country, particularly violence in marital relationships, however, such measures safeguarding women's rights have proven to be lethal for males. According to the statistics, many fraudulent domestic violence cases have been submitted by women to compel men to meet unrealistic or immoral objectives.  

A report published by two non-profit organizations, Save Family Foundation and My Nation Foundation, found that only 2.8 percent of the 1,00,000 reports filed by women in the country between 2016 and 2017 were accurate. According to data from the National Crime Record Bureau, 21.16 percent more males than women have committed suicide as a result of domestic violence.

Many fatalities have resulted from such pending litigation that eventually relates to curtailing men's rights by providing extra protection as assumed by the government towards women, resulting in suicides, depression, insanity, and other inhuman activities out of frustration at not being able to resolve the matter. 

Understanding the nature of the provisions under various women's protection laws, several groups, and activists have campaigned for new legislation, or at the very least an amendment to the law, to safeguard men's interests. The Honorable Apex Court has recognized the necessity to issue different directives to police in dealing with various domestic violence, dowry, abuse, and cruelty cases. 

After the #me too campaign, when women were allowed to submit accusations against any act of violence against them, There were a lot of false cases filed against the males.

Protection

The (CrPC) governs the procedure for dealing with criminal complaints submitted by anyone requesting that competent authorities act in their capacity to minimize the loss or restore the complainant's right. The numerous parts dealing with the protection of any person who believes a charge leveled against him is untrue or fruitless.

Furthermore, any individual who is accused by another person under any legislation created to safeguard women's rights has access to a variety of judicial remedies. A person may seek protection under the following provisions:

Section 227: This section indicates that anybody who believes his wife's complaint is false and fabricated must produce proof that contradicts the complaint on this basis and the Honorable Magistrate can dismiss the wife's plea under section 498A and decide accordingly.

Section 438: The said section of the Criminal Procedure Code deals with filing an appeal or a bail application with the session court to avoid being arrested by the police; this application is also known as Anticipatory Bail.

Section 482: Section 482 of the Cr. P.C gives inherent powers to the high court if the evidence or testimony does not appear to support the accusation leveled against the person (husband) by his wife, where such section deals with the goal that any power of the law to protect the public interest should not be used for personal vendetta or as a weapon for undue advantage, this can also be used to quash the FIR by any person. 

Any aggrieved person can file a complaint under section 9 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 to collect damages incurred as a result of the false case or the proceeding.

 

The Indian Penal Code rules regulate and direct the penalty meted out to those found guilty of any offense (whether heinous or non-heinous). Various clauses safeguard a spouse's rights if he or she is caught up in a terrible crime and considers themselves to be innocent.

Section 120B: The said section deals with criminal conspiracy.

Section 182: This said section deals with protecting the interest of the person against his wife if the wife submitted or provided false evidence for the public servant to act accordingly.

Section 191: The said section deals with if the husband believes that the documents provided by her wife are false and fabricated and taking advantage on the basis of false and fabricated documents.