Author:
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: November 17, 2000
To mitigate the hardships
faced by Christian women in divorce matters, the Union Cabinet today initiated
steps for bringing suitable changes in the outdated Indian Divorce Act,
1869, by approving the Indian Divorce (amendment) Bill, 2000 which will
be introduced in Parliament during the winter session.
"Union Law Minister Arun
Jaitely will introduce the amending Bill and have it passed in the ensuring
winter session of Parliament," an official release said.
As per Section 10 of
the prevailing law, a Christian woman who seeks dissolution of her marriage
is required to prove adultery and some other marital fences against her
husband, whereas the man has to prove adultery only.
"This is clearly discriminatory
against women and hence the Cabinet has decided to amend this Act," Parliamentary
Affairs Minster Pramod Mahajan said after a Cabinet meeting. He said
under Secs 17 and 20, a decree passed by a district court has to be confirmed
by the HC in case of the Christian community though incase of other communities,
the decree by the district court is accepted. The amendment seeks
to correct this and bring it inline with similar Acts applicable to other
communities, Mahajan said. The amending Bill also seek to repeal
three related laws The Indian and Colonial Divorce Act, 1928, The Indian
and Colonial Divorce Act, 1945 - as these Acts have outlived their utility
and become obsolete as per the recommendations of the P C Jain Commission
Report on Review of Administrative Laws, the official release said.
The HCs of Madras, Calcutta, Bombay and AP have come down heavily on the
gender inequality in the matter of grounds of divorce as contained in Sec
10 of the Indian Divorce Act, 1869.
