Hope for victims of NRI marriages

The New Indian ExpressFirst Published : 18 May 2011 10:46:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 17 May 2011 11:18:45 PM IST

The Supreme Court has given a ray of hope to Indian women married to non-resident Indians whose marriages are on the rocks. In a path-breaking judgment on Monday, the court has given relief to a woman, who has returned to India with her child after she was thrown out of her husband’s home in the US. She approached a court in India which, taking into account her distress, her child’s future and the fact that her husband had married again, granted her the child’s custody. But following her husband’s complaint that she had ‘abducted his child’, a court in California issued a red corner notice against her. When the case reached the high court, it set aside the trial court’s verdict on the ground that they were US citizens and, therefore, the court had no jurisdiction.


In such cases, the courts go by the ‘doctrine of comity of courts’ whereby they respect each other’s jurisdiction. Had the apex court also followed this, it would have been forced to treat the mother as an ‘abductor’. However, the fact is that she was a victim, who did not have the wherewithal to fight her husband and had, therefore, escaped to India. In most marital disputes, the custody of minor children is given to the mother, because she is in a better position to bring them up. Usually, the court also allows the father periodic access to their children till they attain maturity and can decide on their own whether to stay with the father or the mother or independently.

In the instant case, the Supreme Court was guided solely by humanitarian considerations. Though there is a craze for NRI grooms among some communities, a good number of such marriages fail, mainly because of adjustment problems. Whatever be the reasons for the failures, the victims are almost wholly the transplanted wives. The problem is so acute in Punjab that organisations to fight for the victims of NRI marriages have been sprouting. The Supreme Court’s verdict is a shot in the arm for such initiatives