File dowry cases against HUSBAND instead of Divorce – Adv. Geeta Luthra
Because a court-ordered divorce can take 15 years, women’s attorneys often advise them to file dowry or domestic violence cases against their husbands instead, says Geeta Luthra, a lawyer who works on divorce and other women’s issues. The criminal courts are equally slow, but the threat of being arrested and spending time behind bars while their lawyer argues for bail exerts pressure on men to settle. That’s unfortunate, Luthra says, because the "eight false cases" are making the one genuine dowry petitioner more difficult to believe.
The domestic violence act of 2005 poses another kind of threat: An abused wife can be awarded any "matrimonial home" that she resided in during her marriage — whether or not her husband holds the deed. "The idea is that by scaring the husband and his family they’ll force them to settle. And the settlement basically means money," Banerjee says. "The law is certainly being abused. That’s not my assessment, that’s the assessment of the high court and the supreme court."
On the other hand, Luthra says that these days, among couples who don’t live with the husband’s parents, the wife’s mother may call with advice 10 times a day.
That’s a problem any culture — traditional or modern — can understand.
(From Huffington Post)
Tagged domestic violence, Law
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