Women's Commission to set up Mahila Lok Adalat

By M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD, JULY 26. The Andhra Pradesh Women's Commission is arming itself. A permanent Mahila Lok Adalat is coming up in its Buddha Bhavan premises here with effect from July 30 to arbitrate and settle cases concerning women.

The bench, being set up by the Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority (APSLSA) in compliance of the commission's long-pending request, will be headed by a judge to be drafted from among retired High Court or District Judges, and will consist of two members--a legal expert and a social worker. It will sit at least twice a month. The bench is being formally inaugurated on July 30 by the High Court Chief Justice, Mr S. B. Sinha, who is patron-in-chief of the APSLSA.

To start with, the bench will deal with eight typical cases of dowry harassment, divorce and maintenance payment to deserted women, all referred to by the Commission. Among them are the cases of Ms Sudha of Chukkapur in Nirmal mandal of Adilabad district who could secure her dowry amount and jewellery back at the instance of the commission and is seeking divorce from her "troublesome" husband, Mr S. Satyanarayana, and of a husband who harasses his "divorced" wife, going to her working place, Osmania General Hospital, instead of paying the monthly maintenance.

The Chairperson of the three-year old Women's Commission, Mrs Ch. Susheela Devi, describes the Lok Adalat bench as a "milestone" as, such a facility exists nowhere in the country. It will go a long way in putting an end to the legal battles with which the harassed wives are vexed. In an interview to The Hindu here on Thursday, she said the bench would settle all the cases filed before it by the Commission apart from formalising the "verdicts" issued by village panchayats/elders, social workers, non- government organisations and even women's wings which have cropped up, of late, in almost all political parties as a welcome sign. In most cases, men stopped implementation of such "verdicts" after two or three months but when they were formalised through a Lok Adalat award, they would be binding on them like a court order. "The guilty has no escape" she averred.

The Chairperson feels that there has been tremendous change as far as laws enacted for women and movements launched for their rights and privileges are concerned but full justice can't be assured to them unless there is transformation in society. This can be achieved only by creating awareness among the women about their rights and in society about the need to give them such rights.

Asked if the Commission was doing anything to contain girl-child adoption rackets as witnessed in the State recently, Mrs Susheela Devi spoke of a project planned by the Commission for organising campaigns, meetings and discussions across the villages which would serve as a "real antidote". This kind of problem was seen all over the world, especially Eastern countries, and the best way to tackle it was to create awareness in the society against such crime.

The Chairperson remained non-committal on the proposal made by the Government sometime ago to give death punishment for rape and instead, contended that "it all depends on the facts" which differed from case to case.

The Women's Commission faced a setback recently when the Union Government kept in abeyance a Bill passed by the Assembly conferring certain benefits on women, instead of passing it to the President for his assent. The Commission, through the Bill, proposed changes in Section 498 (A) of the IPC to enhance the minimum amount payable for the maintenance of a deserted wife having children to Rs 3,000 a month from the present Rs 500 which "is a pittance" when compared to the present prices.

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