A New Low

8^th October will always be remembered as the day of shame in the history of the Indian Judicial System. The Supreme Court proudly put forward its verdict and I quote

 “In a Hindu society, it is a "pious obligation" of the son to maintain parents and the persistent effort of the wife to constrain the husband to be separated from his family constitutes an act of 'cruelty' enabling him to get divorce”

I really don’t get it why does the Supreme Court (the highest body of our respectable judicial system) feel the need to enter and solve the small tiffs that happen normally between a daughter-in-law and her very own mother-in-law.

This law clearly indicates the influence, today’s daily soaps play on the minds of reputed and respectable people who form a very important part of the chain that binds the very fragment of the entire system as a whole.

Let me mention, the Karnataka based man who went forward and filed for such a divorce (according to the court) was under tremendous stress because his wife was continuously pestering him to leave his parents who were dependent on his income. After due investigation it was found that the wife literally wanted the man to leave his parents and had even tried to commit suicide so that her husband might be pushed of the edge for meeting her demands.

Phew*

The problem is not with the case, what amazes a normal 21^st century being is that the Supreme Court said

  “To live away from parents is a westernized thought which is completely alien to us. Therefore, a son can file for divorce if his wife forces him to separate his parents.”

The court also said “the wife cannot separate her husband from his parents just because she wants to enjoy the whole income of her husband.”

Dear Honorable Jury I wanted to ask, Can the wife separate the husband from his parents in other scenarios which might be even more severe than enjoying her husband’s income.

Readers, the problem actually isn’t with the case but with the blatant statements given by the jury that day. Going by the above statements,  the day is not far when one day a man would be sentenced for a time period in prison because he stepped on an ant and this is an act of cruelty in Jainism and several other religions.

Passing such laws targeted to a particular religion, in a country that boasts about secularism and the idea of Unity in Diversity doesn’t seem fair.\

And talking about women equality, doesn’t such a law weaken a woman. 

Imagine a scenario where a woman is tensed and perturbed by the never ending problems in her marriage and wants to seek divorce. She goes to knock at the doors of our judicial system but her husband alleges infront of the court that ‘she herself was trying to drift my parents apart from me’. This seems shocking.

 Isn’t this hilarious that at one point we are weakening the stature of women and on the other hand we talk volumes about emancipation of women.

 *slow claps*   

Such a judgement targets both secularism and equality straight in the face.

Such a law also brings to notice that our judicial system despite having thousands of cases pending is busy in making laws and giving such judgements that are both tarnishing equality on one hand and giving special provisions to the males of a particular religion on the other hand.

And we are even forgetting that this judgement passed could even be used as a reference in future.  

Certainly something needs to be mended and in that too in time.