HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday admitted a PIL case filed seeking legal aid to the Indian women facing matrimonial disputes in foreign countries.
The bench directed the Centre and the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to explain the legal aid being extended to women who were divorced abroad after solemnising marriages in India.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akther was dealing with a PIL filed by P Archana of Ranga Reddy district seeking to declare the action of the Centre and its authorities in not enforcing the decisions of the Inter-ministerial Committee constituted under the chairmanship of secretary to ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs with regard to providing legal aid to Indian women, as illegal.
Petitioner’s counsel Vasudha Nagraj told the court that the authorities concerned have failed in implementing the recommendations of the Ministerial committee which had recommended for entering into Mutual Assistance Legal Treaties with respective governments of foreign countries that have sizeable Indian population in respect of the marriages solemnized in India and dissolved in their respective countries as per their family laws, and in not safeguarding the legal interests of the deserted Indian wives in foreign countries.
The counsel urged the court to direct the Centre to enforce a strict implementation of the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial matters within the country as well as foreign country and to provide a panel of competent lawyers for each of the Embassies in the respective foreign countries which have large Indian population to represent the legal interests of the deserted Indian wives in matrimonial proceedings.
While admitting the plea, the bench issued notices to the respondent governments and its authorities for filing counter affidavits in the case. The bench posted the matter to June.