BHOPAL: A series of petitions have been filed by Jain community members in the Madhya Pradesh High Court against an Indore family court order denying them relief in matrimonial disputes/matters under provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act.
The concerned family court judge, First Additional Principal Judge, Family Court-Indore Dhirendra Singh, refused multiple Jain couples relief under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act (which deals with divorce by mutual consent).
In one of those orders passed while hearing the divorce by mutual consent petition of a 35-year-old advocate and her 37-year-old software engineer husband, the judge mentioned, “Followers of Jainism don’t have any right to get relief under the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, as they have rejected the basic Vedic beliefs of Hinduism and have established themselves as minorities after separating from Hindu religion since 2014.”
The judge further mentioned in that order, “While relief cannot be granted to Jain community members under the Hindu Marriage Act, the followers of Jainism are at liberty to file pleas in accordance with the well established old religious and social traditions of their religion, under Section 7 of the Family Court Act to get their marital disputes resolved.”
A division bench of the MP High Court in Indore, comprising Justices Vivek Rusia and Gajendra Singh, while looking into the controversy involved in the case, has appointed Indore-based senior advocate AK Sethi as amicus curiae to assist the HC.
Further, the MP HC in its order on February 17, while mentioning that as many as 28 petitions filed under Section 13-B of the Hindu Marriage Act have been dismissed by the First Additional Principal Judge-Family Court Indore and in some cases appeals have already been filed before the HC, has restrained the concerned family court from dismissing pending petitions on the ground that Jains are minorities.
“Jain community members have been getting their matrimonial disputes resolved under the Hindu Marriage Act for a long time, since there is no separate marriage law for them. Indore district has not one but five family court benches, but only one of those benches has passed the order while hearing not one but multiple matrimonial disputes petitions in a single day last month,” said Pankaj Khandelwal, the counsel in one of the cases.
Importantly, the family court in its order (which has been challenged in the HC) mentioned, “In Hinduism, texts such as the Vedas, Upanishads, and Smritis are considered sacred. However, Jainism does not accept the Vedas or other Hindu scriptures and has its own distinct sacred texts, such as the ‘Agamas’ and ‘Sutras.’ According to Hindu beliefs, the universe was created by Brahma. Jainism instead believes that the universe is eternal and was never created. In Hinduism, the soul and the Supreme Soul (Paramatma) are considered distinct, and it is believed that upon the end of life, the soul merges back into the Supreme Soul. But Jainism says that every soul is itself a Supreme Soul. In Hinduism, worship of multiple gods and goddesses is practiced, whereas in Jainism, Tirthankaras are worshipped.”