BENGALURU : Suchitra (name changed), 38, was in search of a life partner. From a broken home and having lost her mother eight years back, she wanted to settle down with a family of her own. Two year back, she found someone online to marry. Suchitra says that she did it all on her own, from making all the arrangements to paying for her wedding. The wedding took place in Bellary, as per her new husband’s family’s demands, for which she had to incur a total cost of `12 to `13 lakhs. She even had to give jewellery to her husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law, which was worth `3 lakh.
Her husband, an NRI based in the US, flew down for the wedding in August 2016. Post the wedding, they spent three weeks together, and he went back to the US in September 2016. “Before leaving, he asked me to spend some time with his mother in Hyderabad. I went there and spent 13 days with her. Thereafter, we attended a wedding ceremony of their relative in Bengaluru, where she insulted me in front of everyone, calling me ‘ugly’ and claiming I’m a bad bride.”
She claims that her husband and in-laws would constantly look for flaws in her, and threaten her with divorce every time they argued. She would try talking to him over the phone, but he would cite excuses and would refuse to take her calls. “They tried to cut me off from my friends and relatives. They would intimidate me constantly. When it was time for me to go to my husband to the US, in November 2016, as promised, they started asking me if I have any ancestral property or money that I could give them to cover my living expenses in the US.”
Suchitra’s trip to the US was fixed on the condition that she would take care of her mother-in-law’s medical bills and check-ups. On November 13, the husband told her over the phone that the marriage was not working out, and gave her 24 hours to think about it. On November 15, in spite of her not wanting to break the marriage, he wanted to call it off. Her ticket to the US was cancelled. “He told me not to come, and that even if I made arrangements and went on my own, he would change his address. He told me to vacate the house in Bengaluru, or else, his brother would threaten me.” By then, she had made all arrangements to leave for the US. She resigned from her job and vacated her room. “I tried reaching out to him, but he blocked my number and did not reply to my messages or e-mails.”
On January 2017, the husband sent a divorce notice and asked for `20 lakh for ‘marriage expenses’, which was spent in booking flight tickets. She filed a case against the husband, mother-in-law and the sister-in-law. However, the court quashed the charges against the sister-in-law, stating that there don’t seem to be valid charges against her. In the last hearing on August 16, it was learnt that the case has been split in to two – one on the husband and the other on the mother-in-law. The lower court has also issued CRPC 83 (Attachment of Property of Person Absconding) on the husband. After having spent all of her money on the wedding, Sucharita can’t afford a lawyer now, as they charge lakhs to fight a case.
Lack of legal support
Advocate Mohammed Shakeeb has had three such cases come to him in the last three years. He says that pattern is similar - the husband files for divorce from abroad. Talking about this rising trend, he says that there are no legal processes that force NRIs to present themselves before Indian courts. The husbands, in turn, use this trick to abandon their wives. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has made several attempts to extradite these husbands, but no act has been implemented. “The legal landscape for apprehending these NRI husbands who abandon their wives has not changed even after the statement made by the MEA, which sought to summon these husbands through their website. The legislative process takes time. Hopefully, a law dealing with this particular issue will be put in place soon.”