JUST order: Restoring women’s faith in cases involving NRI marriages

In the marriage market, the NRI male has been the most sought-after commodity in the past couple of decades or so. Eligible bachelors often jet down from the First World, meet 15 prospective brides in five days, then decide to marry the one they prefer over the rest. Few bother to check out on the credentials of the groom or the compatibility factor of the couple. With an NRI groom, it is assumed, they will live together happily ever after.

The assumption couldn’t have been farther from reality. As more and more horror stories of NRIs ill-treating their better halves are tumbling out of their designer closets, more and more hapless women are seeking out the legal option. But getting justice in such cases is not easy. Many women, being financially dependent on their husbands, cannot bear the prohibitive legal costs. And many NRI men are smug in their belief that they are outside the reach of Indian law.

No longer. Dealing with a case in which a NRI had married an Indian woman in the USA and divorced her later, the Delhi High Court has overruled the contention that Indian courts do not have territorial jurisdiction in such matters.

On July 16, the court asked an NRI, Suryanarayana Murthy Sonti, a software developer in Delaware, USA, to “clear all the arrears of the maintenance upto date,” to his divorced wife in Delhi, though the marriage was performed in the US. If he doesn’t carry out the orders, the court will serve an Interpol notice against him through the Indian embassy at Washington in the local Delaware newspapers.

“Some Indians living abroad come to India to marry Indian girls to exploit them and think they are at the top of the world and Indian courts cannot do anything about it. Indian courts are not handicapped and it will be ensured that justice is done to the woman,” Justice Mukul Mudgal observed in court. The next hearing of the case is scheduled on August 16.

It has been a long road to justice for Vasanthi (name changed on request of her lawyer, M. Tarique Siddiqui), who worked as a secretary in Delhi’s Tata Energy Research Institute. In her petition to the court, Vasanthi said that she was about to be promoted when she resigned from her permanent job on “the instructions and requests” of Sonti’s family in view of her impending marriage and settlement in the USA. The marriage was arranged through common family friends and finalised after long-distance telephone conversations.

The petition said that the marriage was performed in the US following a request from the groom’s family. All members of the groom’s family were US-based. However, due to difficulty in procuring visas, only the bride and her father went to the US. The marriage was solemnised in April 1999, first before the Clerk of Peace, Delaware and again a couple of days later as per Hindu rites in the Lord Venkateshwara temple in Pittsburg, USA.

Unfortunately, the marriage did not work out. In February 2000, Vasanthi filed a petition in the Delhi High Court claiming maintenance and damages after returning to India. Sonti’s lawyers contested the plea. One of the reasons cited by them was that the court had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the case.

However, a month later, the court passed an order which prohibited Sonti from selling his property in Vishakapatnam. And in a judgment delivered on July 2001, Justice A.K. Sikri ordered the groom to pay a sum of $400 per month, including arrears, to his ex-wife. The defendant then appealed to a division bench but the appeal was dismissed in December, 2001.

However, no payments were made. In January 2002, a contempt petition was filed. The proceedings continued for another two years. And finally, on March 16, 2004, the court issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) through Interpol against Sonti for not paying the damages as per the earlier court orders.

Now, with the court deciding to go another step ahead in executing its orders, many feel it is a landmark judgment. Says Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research, “It sets a precedent. It shows that the court can even go to the Interpol to get justice. It is a good step to deliverance of justice. It will restore women’s faith in cases involving NRI marriages.”

In the past, many women’s rights groups have felt helpless because getting justice in cases involving NRIs has not been easy. In several cases, activists feel, the law has not been as assertive as it should have been. Kirti Singh, lawyer and women’s rights activist, believes that several errant NRIs think they are out of reach of Indian law and need not comply with orders passed by Indian courts. “It is a welcome step forward that courts here have started thinking of executing maintenance orders on NRIs settled abroad,” she says.

As senior Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Singhvi sums it up aptly, “It sends a clear message and a warning to obstinate, non-compliers who wilfully disobey orders.”