Do you love your wife? You better do !
There were few changes made few weeks back in the
marriage laws in India, which everybody should be aware about. A bill called
“Marriage Law’s (Amendment) Bill 2010″ was passed in Rajya Sabha which has made
some major changes in the women rights on how the properties
would be divided after divorce.
The biggest change says – “As per new Divorce
law, Wife share in property would be 50% in all her husband’s
residential properties, no matter what and in other properties, her share will
be decided as per the court decision.”
Wife share in property owned by husband would be
50%
Earlier, before this change – a women was entitled
for a share in husband’s properties, but there was no quantum defined as per
law, it would be any percentage depending on the case, but now with this
amendment done, a women will enjoy equal sharing without any condition in all
the residential properties owned by husband. But in this case, women will have
to specifically apply for her share, she should be aware about this law about
“50% share” .
A major change in this amendment is that this rule
is applicable to all the properties of the husband acquired before and after
the marriage, whereas as the earlier law made sure that the wife gets share
only in those properties which are acquired by husband only after marriage. Now
men stand to loose on this front, in-case things so sour with wife.
Husband & Wife joint holder’s in a residential
property
You should be clear by now, what will happen in the
case where a property is registered in the joint names of husband and wife. A
lot of couple register a house in joint names, a lot of times both pay’s from
their respective salaries, and in some cases only one party pays (generally
husband). Imagine divorce happens – Who will get how much ? Women will keep her
50% part and she will also get half of her husband share in the house, so 75%
wife and 25% husband.
Rights of women after divorce on other properties
in India?
Apart from the mandatory 50% share in husband’s
residential properties, the wife will also be entitled to get a share in other
kind of properties, but the quantum is not set, as per the Bill, it will depend
on “living standard of the wife”
Waiver of six months cooling period possible
As per the old Indian law which governed the
division of assets for women after divorce, it was mandatory for husband and
wife to spend at-least 6 months together before applying for divorce, but with
this new amendment bill, there are provisions of waiving off the 6 months cool
off period or lessen it, but only if both husband and wife wants it. Which
means if one of the spouse wants to get divorce on an “urgent basis” , but
other does not, it will not be possible. This is one of the major change in the
bill and will help those couples who do not want to serve that “6 months” cool
off period of living together.
Is this a anti-male law ?
A lot of groups have termed this change as
anti-marriage and ant-male law and critically oppose it, they have termed it as
a bill totally against males and illogical. The major issues with the amendment
are as follows
·
The bill talks
about only the division of Husband Properties, but not wife’s properties. So
in-case women is at fault, still she will get 50% share in husband property,
but her share of property will not be divided.
·
A major
disappointment for men in this bill is that, even the “person at fault” can
apply for getting the share of property, and the other party will have to
respond to it. Generally as per old law’s when mutual consent was not there,
the victim applies for the property share and the person who is the “bad
person” has to respond to it. Now with his law change, wife can seek a divorce
and ask for share in property.
·
If wife and husband
are living apart from many years, a wife can oppose the divorce on the grounds
of financial hardship, but men cannot! . This is called Irretrievable breakdown
of marriage
·
There are concern’s
raised like this law will encourage more divorce’s are women can get hold of
property easily for sure.
Now there are some serious concerns due to these
changes. If a husband has one residential properties, old parents who are
financial dependent on him and there is divorce between husband and wife, the
wife could take 50% share, in which case the men will be left with 50%
property, this seems very unjustified. What is the women already owned 2 more
properties on her name? She has nothing to worry! .
One serious drawback of this law is that some men,
who are undergoing a bad phase of marriage, may convert their residential
properties into immovable assets, or just transfer it on other names to save
themselves from parting away with 50% share in worst case.
Conclusion
While there are cases where women are deprived of
their share in wealth at the time of divorce in India and there was requirement
of strong laws which focuses on rights of women in case of divorce in
India, this amendment seems to have gone beyond what it wanted and has
loopholes which can be exploited by women. With due respect to each gender, it
would be great if there would have been some balanced law, and some thought
should have gone for worst cases.
To summarize things, here are the take away’s from
the changes made in marriage law’s.
·
In case of divorce,
Woman will have 50% share in the residential property of a man
·
The wife will
have to take the initiative of seeking her share in such cases.
·
Women and
children will also have rights in the other assets of man, which will be
decided by court
·
It does not
matter if the property was acquired by before or after the marriage
What do you think about this amendment ? Do you
also feel its too anti-male but only designed keeping women in mind ? Do you
feel its correct to keep 50% share for wife in husband’s property in case of
divorce as per law in India ? Note that the bill still needs to be passed in
Lok Sabha
Source :
Manish Chauhan - Jagoinvestor
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