INDIA's Supreme Court on Monday (22) said it would hear the pleas seeking arrest of non-resident Indian (NRI) husbands, for deserting their wives and harassing them for dowry, in July this year.
A bench of chief justice SA Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was told by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner group of women, that pleading has been completed in the matter and he is ready to argue the case.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for NGO Pravasi Legal Cell, said they have filed a separate plea in the matter.
A counsel appearing for Delhi Sikh Gurudwara management committee said that they have also filed a separate petition on the issue and notice be issued on it.
On November 13, 2018, the top court had issued notices to the centre on the plea seeking that the deserted women be accorded legal, financial help and their estranged NRI husbands be arrested after the filing of FIRs.
The top court also asked the Indian government to submit a reply, with the feasibility of having a policy on the issue, within six weeks.
A group of women, who have allegedly been deserted by their NRI husbands and subjected to dowry harassment, have moved the apex court seeking reliefs including mandatory arrest of their estranged spouses and consular help in fighting cases in foreign land.
The women, represented by advocate Satya Mitra, said in the plea that immediate look out circular in cases of absconding husbands be issued after an FIR is lodged in the case.
The petition sought directions to Indian embassies throughout the world to play a proactive and compassionate role.
"Issue direction for compensation in cases of striking off visa's only on the perusal of the husband intimation letter to the immigration department of the host country without any documentary evidence," the plea has said.
The plea of Pravasi Legal Cell filed through advocate Jose Abraham said that the petition raises major issues and challenges faced by women in NRI marriages.
“This is one of the typical instances where after a quick engagement, followed by a massive wedding and a huge dowry, the NRI husband flies out of India while the wife waits for her visa. In such cases, the husband abandons his legally wedded wife, promising to soon send her ticket that never came”, it said.
“The husband never called or wrote and never came back. The in-laws who could still be in India, would either plead helplessness or flatly refuse to help."
The plea pointed out that in many instances, the woman would be pregnant at the time husband left her and so both she and the child were abandoned.
Kulsuma Aktergetty images