Hyderabad: Being married to a man who lives abroad while you are in India isn’t easy; getting a divorce is even tougher. Ms Archana Pydah, who went through this situation, said it is an extremely expensive process for a deserted wife living in India to contest divorce proceedings in a foreign court. She said it is tough for her if she has no resources to engage lawyers and follow up on proceedings in foreign courts.
Ms Archana has moved a PIL before the Hyderabad High Court seeking legal assistance for NRI wives facing matrimonial disputes in foreign courts. She stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a policy of providing financial assistance to women who have been deserted by their overseas husbands and are in distress, with a maximum grant of $3,000 in developed countries, to seek legal and counseling services. But, $3,000 is not enough as lawyers in these countries charge between $5,000 and $7,500 only as a retainer.
“My experience and the experience of other women show that it is not financial assistance alone that can solve the problems of deserted Indian wives,” she said.
Ms Archana said the prohibitive expenses of such litigation leads most women to reconcile to their fate and forget about contesting the divorce proceedings.
“More crucially, rights to maintenance, custody of children and share in the matrimonial home are severely compromised in litigations initiated by Indian husbands in foreign courts," she stated.
She said the National Commission for Women (Procedure) Regulations, 2016 had set up a separate Cell called the NRI Cell for a systematic and effective handling of complaints referred to it by deserted Indian wives. However these efforts do not seem to be adequate to protect the interests of deserted wives in foreign courts.
She said the Centre needs to double its efforts and convey the magnitude of the issue of desertion and destitution of Indian wives to respective foreign governments by way of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties that will regulate and lay down guidelines for dissolution of marriages solemnised under Indian Personal Laws by foreign courts.
