This article has been written by Ms. Anju, a 2nd year student at Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida.
INTRODUCTION:
The term “NRI wedding” refers to unions between an Indian woman and a man who is a “Non-Resident Indian” (also known as “Non-Resident Indian”) and claims to be an Indian citizen or PIO (Person of Indian Origin) of another nation. This kind of marriage is seen as a good way to get into a new country and live well. The primary reason for this is the idea that the whole world is a village. It has distorted marriage as a whole. If a child is living abroad, getting married is seen as a status symbol in many Indian states, like Haryana and Punjab, for their socioeconomic advancement. Every religion and nation has a very high rate of NRI marriage. The marriage of an NRI can lead to a number of issues, including difficulties with language, unfamiliarity with the culture of the other country, ignorance of the country’s legal system, and lack of family support. The woman’s isolation in a foreign country, far from her family, increases the risks of these marriages. These issues prevented the women from receiving any kind of medical or surveillance assistance, and as a result, they face a variety of challenges in a foreign country. Due to their cultural and traditional similarities, NRI marriages are solemnized. However, common reasons such as spouse abandonment, domestic violence, extramarital relationships, visa and immigration delays, and a relationship with an existing spouse lead to unhappy marriages and numerous marital disputes. In NRI marriage typically ladies were deserted by the spouse because of many reasons. The undesirable interest of endowment after marriage is main driver behind uninhibitedness of ladies NRI relationships upset the arrangement of marriage and guideline of fairness under the constitution of India which leads towards the infringement of right to life and individual freedom of ladies. This type of marriage practice fundamentally alters marriage performance and its divine purpose.
PATTERNS OF NRI WIVES ABANDONMENT:
- A lady who has got herself landed in a foreign country with her NRI partner soon realizes that her husband has gone mysteriously vanished, leaving her alone in that new land.
- A woman who lives overseas with her husband is duped and/or coerced into returning to India, where she is left without a passport, visa, or money, and thus in absence of any way or accessibility for reuniting with her spouse; and
- A woman who marries prior to her spouse leaving to a foreign nation but never manages to get a visa to accompany him there is often referred to as a “holiday bride” by society.
LEGAL PROVISIONS:
For the NRI marriage all laws are applicable which are made under the Indian legal system. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955,The Special Marriage Act, 1954, The Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, The J&K Hindu Marriage Act, 1980, Goa, Daman and Diu Laws, Quaranic Laws of Muslims, Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, The Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, The Indian Divorce Act, 1869, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, The dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, The divorce Act 1869, The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 2003 (Act No. 50 of 2003). In 2019 then External Affairs Minister introduced path breaking bill on registration of Marriage of NRI with intent to provide better protection and to create more accountability towards Indian women for NRI marriage. The bill of NRI marriage provides protection to women by compulsory registration of marriage which will serve the purpose the women is legally weeded wife of NRI person. It is mandatory on the person to get marriage registration within 30 days from the date of marriage. Additionally, the marriage will be registered by diplomatic officer who will be by country in foreign countries. If the parties fail to register the marriage within stipulated period his passport will be impound till registration of marriage . A wife can under section 10 of the Passport Act apply for Impounding and/or revocation of the passport of her NRI husband if he failed to respond to the summons by the Indian courts . Moreover if the person fail to comply any provision essential for marriage and protection to women the court has right to issue summons and warrant which will turn proclamation of offender and court has power to declare the person absconded and All laws enacted under the Indian legal system apply to NRI marriages. the Quaranic Laws of Muslims, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, the Indian Divorce Act, 1869, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969, the JandK Hindu Marriage Act, 1980, the Laws of Goa, Daman and Diu, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, the Divorce Act 1869, and the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 2003 (Act No. (50 of 2003). With the goal of improving protection and increasing accountability towards Indian women for NRI marriages, the External Affairs Minister introduced a groundbreaking bill in 2019 regarding the registration of NRI marriages. The NRI marriage bill protects women by requiring marriage registration, which will serve to establish the woman’s legal status as the NRI’s wife. Within 30 days of the wedding date, the individual must obtain a marriage registration. Additionally, a diplomatic officer stationed in a foreign nation will register the marriage. A wife may apply under section 10 of the Passport Act for the impounding and/or revocation of her NRI husband’s passport if he fails to respond to the summons by the Indian courts. Additionally, if the person fails to register the marriage within the allotted time, his passport will be impounded until the marriage is registered.
JUDICIAL DETERMINATIONS:
Option 1: (Copy result) After the marriage is formally consummated in India, the bride’s husband takes her overseas. Presuming that at this point, the NRI husband obtains an ex-parte divorce decree from a foreign court. In this situation, the Indian spouse is left defenseless and must deal with matrimonial litigation in a foreign court without the resources to do so, which frequently leaves her feeling angry, dejected, and frustrated. The Supreme Court in the widely recognized Y case. According to Narasimha Rao, the only courts with the authority to decide a marital dispute are those that are recognized by the Act or other laws in which the parties are married. If neither party voluntarily and completely submits to the jurisdiction of any other court, that court will be considered incompetent. As a result, the court decided that in order to uphold judgments made by other countries, a decision must be obtained with the consent of all parties and that it may be rejected outright. This rule is not applicable to Reciprocal Territories, as defined in Section 44A of the CPC. India acknowledges the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea as reciprocating territories. The rulings of the courts in the aforementioned nations are therefore equivalent to those of an Indian and valid in India if a woman marries an NRI whose permanent residence is in any of the following nations.
RELEVANT DECISIONS OF THE COURTS IN INDIA:
- In Surinder Kaur Sandhu v. Harbax Singh Sandhu, AIR 1984 SC 1224 the Supreme Court had to decide the custody of the wife/mother in circumstances where while the wife was still in England, the husband had clandestinely taken away the children to India (20) to his parents place even as the English Court had already passed an order on the children’s custody in England. Te Court looked into all the relevant facts of the case to decide what was in the best interest of the children and ultimately on the basis of this consideration directed the custody of the children to be given to the mother.
- Elizabeth Dinshaw v. Arvand M. Dinshaw (MANU/SC/0312/1986) while dealing with a child removed by the father from USA contrary to the custody orders of the US Court passed in favour of the mother, the Supreme Court directed that the child be sent back to USA to the mother not only because of the principle of comity but also because, on facts – which were independently considered – it was in the interests of the child to be sent back to the native State. There the removal of the child by the father and the mother’s application in India were within six months.
- In Kuldeep Sidhu v. Chanan Singh (AIR 1989 P&H 103) the High Court of Punjab and Haryana also took the view that it was in the best interests of the children that the mother who was in Canada be allowed to take back the children from India to Canada where the mother continued to live as they were with their paternal grandparents in India, the father still being in Canada and as, in any case, the mother had been awarded their custody by a competent court in Canada. 4.
- Dhanwanti Joshi v Madhav Unde (1998) 1 SCC 112 the NRI husband was already married to another woman and during the subsistence of the earlier marriage had married the second wife appellant Dhanwanti Joshi. Dhanwanti had a son from him and when the child was just 35 days old she left her husband and came back to India with her infant son. The Supreme Court had the occasion to decide the custody of the child when he was more than 12 years old and decided that eventhough the father may have obtained custody from the US court, the best interests of the child demanded that the child be allowed to continue to stay with the mother in India who had brought up the child singlehandedly in India, subject to visitation rights of the father.
CONCLUSION:
Due to all these frauds and allure of NRI marriage and foreign visa, the Indian Government has taken steps for providing justice to women who have been the victim of NRI marriage or deserted by their husband in the foreign land. The legal system has taken several preventive and corrective measures for it. The government agencies like The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and The National Commission of Women are creating awareness in population to women and their families to prevent themselves from such frauds and not risking into getting into an NRI marriage without a proper background check. The Indian legal system is also in favor of registration of marriage to ease the process of getting relief. The National Commission of India has useful suggestions for dos and don’ts regarding this issue. The unawareness of the social and legal aspects of these marriages also makes the wife prone to abandonment and abuse. As “all the glitters are not gold” similarly, not every NRI is stable and secure and such unawareness leads to various crimes against the wife.
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