By John B Monteiro

Nov 30: November 19, 2014 had two significant, and related, events. Against the noise and din that marks Women’s Day, Children’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, not many care to remember that there is also Men’s Day and on this day, this year, the Supreme Court of India pronounced a judgment that brought smiles on the faces of men – long used to be on the receiving end of judgments from higher judiciary in marital cases. First, the Men’s Day report from Bangalore by Arkadev Ghoshal titled ‘People don’t believe men can be abused’ and published in Deccan Herald (20-11-14) and second, the Supreme Court judgment reported by Ashish Tripathi published in the same paper on the same day – both excerpted here.

"A decade and a half ago, when International Men’s Day was launched on November 19 in Trinidad and Tobago, Ingeborg Breines, the then director of the UNESCO arm, Women and a Culture of Peace, had said it would bring about some gender balance. But, how far has this statement been true in the patriarchal society we live in? To mark this day, a non-governmental organisation called Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) released a documentary film in Kannada called “Moustache” in Bangaluru on November 19, in an effort to spread awareness about how men suffer from gender bias in society.

"CRISP president Kumar Jahgirdar explained: “Men are just expected to give and not take, make sacrifices, and then everything they do is tagged as his ‘duty’. People don’t believe men can be abused, despite phrases like ‘be a man’ or ‘don’t cry like a girl’ being thrown at him when he seeks help for emotional distress.” The statements of Jahgirdar, who has dealt with gender-biased laws for quite a while and now helps others who are similarly distressed, find echoes in the people both behind and in front of the camera of “Moustache”.

"Cinematographer Kartik Mallur and actor Kartik Kumar may not have faced legal hassles like Jahgirdar, but they identify with the subject-matter of the film in different ways. “Nobody will believe that it was the girl’s fault if she gets into an accident with a guy,” said Mallur. Kumar had a different take. “The other day, I read about a woman beating up her husband because he asked for extra food. We laughed at it. Reverse the roles, and suddenly it’s not so funny anymore,” he said.

"Jahgirdar, who has been advocating for men’s rights, explained that the aim of CRIS is gender neutrality. “There’s a ministry for women and children... Where is the ministry for men?” he asked."

Now to the Supreme Court judgment which brought a smile on the face of men when they marked their day.

"The Supreme Court on November 19, 2014 held that filing false criminal complaints against one's spouse amounts to "matrimonial cruelty" and creates sufficient ground for the aggrieved to seek divorce. The court said that the legal position on this issue has been dealt with comprehensively in previous judgments. "It is now beyond cavil that if a false criminal complaint is preferred by either spouse it would invariably and indubitably constitute matrimonial cruelty, such as would entitle the other spouse to claim a divorce," the bench said. A bench of Justices Vikramjit Sen and P C Pant allowed a plea for divorce made by a man from Hyderabad, whose wife had filed false complaints against him and seven of his family members, which led to their incarceration. In such a situation, the marriage could be dissolved under Section 13(1)(ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act, the bench reiterated."

The couple in the instant case had got married in 1989 and had a male child after four years of marriage. The wife developed Sheehan's Syndrome, a post-partum complication, and has been living with her brother, an IAS officer, since 1995. The husband filed a petition for divorce on the ground of cruelty. The court found merit in his contention for cruelty after going through the case."

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason!

-William Shakespeare, English dramatic poet (1564-1616) in Julius Caesar.

This was the general attitude of men involved in marital litigation. Now they can start breathing easy!

Post-script

Since I have been tracking judicial rulings, specially of higher judiciary, for laymen’s consumption, here is a latest tidbit reported by Krishnadas Rajagopal in The Hindu (24-11-14).

"The Supreme Court has held that a husband may have to pay monthly allowance to his estranged wife from the day she applied for maintenance and not always from the date of court order. The same ruling applies in favour of aged parents or children.

"The judgment by a Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S A Bobde interpreted Section 125 of Criminal Procedure Code dealing with payment of maintenance in a petition filed by Jaiminiben Hirenbhai Vyas. In his judgment Justice Bobde wrote that courts were given two choices under Section 125 – payment effective from the date of order or from date of application.”It is incorrect to hold that, as a normal rule, the magistrate should grant maintenance only from the date of order and not from the date of application... It is, therefore, open to the magistrate to award maintenance from the date of application.” The court said the aim of the law was to protect women from destitution after marital relation sours and rescue senior citizens and children from neglect."

Readers will note that in the case of senior citizens and children the law is gender-neutral and in the marital context only female spouse is protected with maintenance. Increasingly males are now asking that females, who proclaim their equality with men, should also be at the giving end of maintenance!

John B Monteiro, author and journalist, has his latest book, Corruption – India’s Painful Crawl to Lokpal, published in USA. Priced at $ 21.5, it is available online from Amazon and other major online distributors.