This article has been written by Ms. Anju, a 2nd year student at Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida.

INTRODUCTION:

NRIs are facing marital dispute that have come to the notice of Indian missions abroad. The US and UAE missions- gave the highest number of data that there living Indians are facing highest caseloads like in matters of  abandonment, desertion ,ill- treatment and physical torture that women continue to suffer from bad marriages.

According to the service of outer undertakings (MEA), with the quantity of abroad Indians expanding, they are getting a few petitions, complaints, and grievances relating to conjugal issues from Indian nationals who are hitched to abroad Indians. There are likewise situations where gatherings having hitched here have been either domiciled or dwelling independently in various outside nations. Matrimonial disputes of all kinds have been arising as a result of this migration, whether it be temporary or permanent, which in turn has ruined the family and its peace. While in excess of 6,000 objections from NRI spouses have been gotten by the MEA over the most recent seven years, according to information got to by TOI, answer to a RTI question shows that there are 2,156 cases explicitly connecting with conjugal debates.

As per RTI, Indian missions in 47 countries are dealing with such cases, with the US accounting for 615 cases and the UAE 586. The cases registered between January 2016 and November 2021 are the subject of the data.

COMMON ISSUES IN NRI MARRIAGES:

• Woman married to NRI who was abandoned even before being taken by her husband to the foreign country of his residence.
• Woman who went to her husband’s home in the other country only to be brutally battered, assaulted, abused both mentally and physically, malnourished, confined and illtreated by him in several other ways.
• Woman who was herself or whose parents were held to ransom for payment of huge sums of money as dowry, both before and after the marriage, her continued stay and safety in her husband’s country of residence depending on that. 
• Woman who reached the foreign country of her husband’s residence and waited at the international airport there only to find that her husband would not turn up at all. 
• Woman who was abandoned in the foreign country with absolutely no support or means of sustenance or escape and without even the legal permission to stay on in that country. 
• Woman who was denied maintenance in India on the pretext that the marriage had already been dissolved by the court in another country.
• Many woman have also approached the Commission seeking redressal of their grievances having been deserted by their NRI Spouses.

LEGAL INTERVENTIONS – INTERNATIONAL

1. The Hague Conventions, especially the following ones, which are related to the issue of NRI marriages, needs to be examined closely and the feasibility of signing the Hague conventions needs to be looked into.

• Show on the Assistance Abroad of Legal and Extra Legal Archives in Common or Business Matters, 1965 (“Administration Show”)
• Show on the Acknowledgment of Separation and Lawful Partitions, 1970
• Show on the Law Appropriate to Support Commitments, 1973
• Show on Festival and Acknowledgment of Legitimacy of Marriage, 1978
• Show of 15 November 1965 on the Assistance Abroad of Legal and Extrajudicial Reports in Common or Business Matters
• Show on the Common Parts of Worldwide Youngster Kidnapping, 1980
• Show on Ward, Material Regulation, Acknowledgment, Requirement and Participation in regard of Parental Obligation and Measures for the Security of Kids, 1996.

2. Bilateral agreements need to be concluded with countries where Indian Diaspora is in large numbers. The current regulation for respective arrangements is accessible based on correspondence for example segment 44A of CPC, Area 3 of Upkeep Orders authorization Act 1921 and segment 13 of CPC. These regulations empower acknowledgment and authorization of unfamiliar separation orders, support orders, youngster guardianship, and so forth
3. Bilateral agreements on critical issues covered by the Conventions mentioned above, especially validity and recognition of divorce decrees, maintenance, child abduction and custody and service of orders and Service Abroad of Judicial and Extra Judicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters.
4. Sign equal two-sided deals, with target states, for example nations with huge presence of Indians, such two-sided settlements on basic issues might consider issues, for example,

• Reason for non-acknowledgment – being against public strategy, judgment given in the event that where no due notice was served to the respondent in the procedures, where a judgment given in a procedure is hostile and in spite of public approach/law of the nation, especially connecting with law of relationships and separation, kid care, and so on
• The issue of commissions for witness assessment in criminal preliminaries

5. Locale has arisen as one of the huge viewpoints, especially, in giving marital alleviation to bombed relationships including non-occupant Indians. The most important considerations have been: house, identity home including routine home. The standard of ongoing home should be considered as a potential premise of marital purview in any endeavor of future regulation. The chief justification for this idea being, that the standard of constant home has found some kind of harmony between residences from one viewpoint and ethnicity on the other. Plus, this standard is likewise fit for giving a base normal essential comprehension among greater part of the nations.
6. On the issue of acknowledgment of unfamiliar separation/nullity order, three lines of way to deal with be embraced to advance the current circumstance.

1. The contextual interpretation of the existing legal provisions as suggested in Narasimha Rao’s case.
2. Widening the scope for more bilateral agreements under Sec.44-A of CPC which is based on reciprocity. Particularly, the government should include those countries where the Indian Diaspora is in substantial in numbers and also those countries which have been already included for conferring dual citizenship.

LEGAL INTERVENTIONS – DOMESTIC

1. Compulsory Registration of Marriages – Registration of marriages be made compulsory – the Supreme Court in Transfer Petition(C) No 291 of 2005 – Smt Seema Vs Aswini Kumar, vide judgement dated 14th February 2006 has issued the directions that the central and State Governments shall take the following steps. 

• Relationships of all people who are residents of India having a place with different religions ought to be obligatorily be enrolled in their particular states. 
• Within three months, the respective states should announce the registration procedure. 
• Therefore, it is now the responsibility of the states to make provisions for the registration of marriages, which must be carried out in the event of NRI marriages taking place in India. 

Likewise marriage testaments for NRI relationships ought to be given in copy duplicates and should convey federal retirement aide number of the NRI mate.

2. Enact special Indian enactments to address the various issues that arise in NRI marriages, incorporating progressive principles being evolved international on private international law, as well as through the Indian judgments, especially the issues of validity of the marriage itself and the choice of law of marriage and divorce that would be applicable in case of disputes in such marriages, the jurisdiction of courts, validity, recognition and enforceability of orders passed by foreign courts, particularly the ex parte divorces or orders of custody or maintenance, powers of Indian courts to limit judicial procedures of the unfamiliar court as well as running against the norm decisions in India in cross-activities; service of notices and court orders regarding dowry demands, battering and other forms of marital cruelty, fraud or misrepresentation, adultery or bigamy, forcible custody or abduction of children – choice of law/forum, subjecting offender to trial regarding absconding, and enforcement of punishment, property rights of deserted or ill-treated wife and children, particularly in ancestral or in-laws’ properties in India
3. It is not uncommon that the parents tend to feign ignorance regarding the whereabouts of their son and disown the son, leaving the woman with no protection or shelter. Therefore it is strongly recommended that the Property laws be amended to allow the NRI wife to claim maintenance and share in parental properties expeditiously as (10) also to claim rights of residence in their properties even if the NRI son has no share in it legally, if the nexus between the parents and the NRI son can be shown and also to invalidate any alienation or change in ownership of family properties after case is filed by the NRI wife. Provision of section 19 of the Hindu adoption and maintenance Act 1956 could also be looked into to in order to make it applicable in case of deserted daughter in laws. 
4. Amend if necessary the Passport Act and add special provision for cancellation of passport of offending NRI spouse. Also include more detailed particulars of spouse in passports apart from attaching her photographs. Also add provisions for requirement of updating of passports of NRI men after marriage to include marital status, to make a stricter offence for fake/false passport
5. Formulate guidelines for the police and law enforcing agencies to deal with cases/ complaints arising out of NRI marriages including suppression of marital status by NRI Grooms, by using existing legal mechanisms and procedures such as initiating action under Section 3 and other relevant provisions of the IPC/CRPC such as Section 188 of Cr.P.C, Section 82: Proclamation for person absconding ,CRPC Attachment of properties (if any) in India (Section 83: Attachment of property of person absconding) initiating action against the parents and relatives who refuse to or feign ignorance on the whereabouts of their son, etc. Further in the event of initiation of any criminal proceedings against the accused NRI husband or his relatives the provisions of section 285(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code can be put into action. The guidelines for initiating action may also include application of Section 18 Hindu Adoption & Maintenance Act, 1956 application for a stay on husband’s property – whether in his name or ancestral properties and the right of the women to matrimonial home which includes the right to reside with her in laws.
6. Look at the possibility to perceive “unrecoverable breakdown of marriage “as a ground for separate from subject to shields

OTHER GOVERNMENTAL INTERVENTIONS 

1. “Special Cells” be set up for NRI Marriages, at the state (where the problem is serious) as well at the Central level, having representation from professionals like lawyers and counselors and also having close cooperation with the National/State Women’s Commission , to facilitate flow, legal assistance, and other necessary action on prompt basis from a single window.
2. A Special Cell be set up with Indian embassies, especially in target countries, to provide crisis assistance, legal support and information as well as all other support to Indian women abroad as well as in India.
3. There should an online access to information on the laws and procedures and support services in other countries that an NRI wife may need to know. For this applicable laws of these nations should be aggregated and assuming vital converted into essentially English, while possibly not in significant Indian dialects, in the first place.
4. Networking and tie-ups with agencies (including the Indian embassies, foreign Government bodies, police and support services) abroad to advice and aid to women who are stranded there or those who are facing legal actions by husbands there. Especially provide facilities like extended Residence Permits to the NRI wife who wishes to stay on for defending her case or any other valid reason, expeditiously issuing her visa for visiting the other country if served with summons or notice from the courts of that country in any legal action initiated by the NRI husband there. 
5. Set up help lines to provide psychosocial counselling to wives and families who have suffered in NRI marriages.

CONCLUSION

Various attempts have been made by legislation as well as Indian Society of International Law (ISIL) to bring solution to the existing dispute regarding NRI marriages. But in absence of its proper implementation problems regarding matrimonial issues and law subsist to a larger extent. As has been discussed in the research, various courts in the Indian Judiciary have resolved the issues of NRI’s but in absence of a proper uniform codified law (though there is Foreign marriage act 1969 it is limited only to certain aspects of marriage and has no mention of other issues like succession, maintenance divorce etc.); there becomes an additional burden on the already overburdened Indian judiciary.

REFERENCES

http://ncw.nic.in/sites/default/files/Book-NRI_Marriage.pdf

https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s3ca0daec69b5adc880fb464895726dbdf/uploads/2022/08/2022081036-1.pdf

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/indian-missions-dealing-with-over-2k-nri-marital-disputes/articleshow/88743833.cms

https://ijlljs.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/The_NRI_Laws_of_India.pdf