Meha Verma, Chanakya National Law University
Amritanshu Udbhava, Chanakya National Law University
ABSTRACT
“It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness”- George Santayana Marriage, a social union or legal contract between people called spouses that creates kinship. NRI marriages as understood by us are between an Indian woman from India and an Indian man residing in another country either as Indian citizen or as citizen of that other country. In the eagerness of lucrative offers of NRI marriages, families often ignore the risk and complexity arising out these marriages. The problem is manifold and includes dowry and other kinds of harassment of married women in foreign countries like non- consummation of marriages, marriages of convenience, concealment of earlier existing marriage by the husband before marrying an Indian woman and lack of social security faced by an Indian woman on the foreign soil once the marriage is broken and ex parte divorces are obtained. The disturbing trend, however, appears to be the easy dissolution of such marriages by the foreign courts even though their solemnization took place in India as per the Indian laws. Since there is no comprehensive and special law to govern such aspects and also in view of the jurisdictional issues involved in decide the matrimonial cases, women are being deprived of justice with impurity. With modernization and urbanization, the violence against women has got increased in many forms resulting in the form of increase in dowry deaths, domestic violence, sexual harassment at workplace, molestation and eve teasing, increase in rape cases, child abuse, bigamy, abandoning of new born girl child and also the declining sex ratio. Violence against women is also getting manifested in the form of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment at workplace, dowry death, suicide, female foeticide and female infanticide, harassment by NRIs to their wives, social violence against widows and psychological and physical violence by alcoholic/addict husbands to their wives. NRI brides are forced to put up with lying, cheating, false promises, unreasonable dowry demands not to mention divorce, desertion and abduction of children. Women are especially vulnerable in the foreign country often without any financial support. They have no one to turn at the time of crisis. The ignorance further give rise to problems like property disputes, marriage related problems like abandoning of women even before taking her to the foreign country and if taken abandoning there with no support and means of sustenance, physical harassment. One of the interesting facts which had come to surface now is that not only girls but boys are also becoming greedy to settle abroad with NRI brides. This paper reviews about issues related to the NRI marriages, property disputes arising out of these marriages and the challenges faced by government in regulating the problems.
Keywords: solemnization, non-consummation, Ex parte divorce, modernization, urbanization, uniform civil code.
