The Hindu : Cases of soured marital ties dominate adalat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Cases of soured marital ties dominate adalat

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 8. The mother of Sreeja could not control her anger or her tears when she was asked to advise her 22-year-old daughter to forget the past and start living with her husband again.

``She is our only daughter and when we got her married last year, we thought she had a secure life. We spent over Rs. 1 lakh for the marriage ceremony, gave her 35 sovereigns and Rs. 2 lakhs in cash,'' Sreeja's mother said.

She said her daughter was being constantly harassed by her in-laws for money to pay off their debtors. All her gold and money had already gone. Her husband had told her that he had married her only for dowry. ``I will approach the Women's Cell of the police rather than send my daughter back to that hell,'' the mother said.

The district-level adalat organised by the State Women's Commission at the SMV School here on Thursday witnessed many such emotional and at times uproarious scenes. Most of the cases were about husband-wife or familial relations turned sour. There were also a number of cases relating to harassment for dowry and desertion.

Sheeba, a resident of Chirayinkil, who was married barely a year ago, too had come with a similar complaint. She said her husband was involved with another woman and did not wish to reside with her as he had only married her for the dowry.

She said she was being harassed by her in-laws. She had already filed for a legal separation at the Family Court and wanted the Commission to help her get back her property. Sheeba said she would not go back to her husband because she did not trust him any longer. She complained that the presiding officials had not shown the patience to hear her out and instead were trying to force a reunion.

Latha, a post-graduate student in the city, appeared before the Commission to accuse her maternal uncle of harassing her family and obstructing all her marriage proposals. The uncle, an employee of the Government Secretariat, had appeared as the opposite party with a counter-petition that his rightful properties were being enjoyed by his sister and family.

However, when the case was called for hearing, there were dramatic scenes. A woman who had come with her own complaint came up to say that she had overheard Latha's uncle making some unsavoury comments about his niece to another person. She even offered to be a witness and the Commission registered a fresh case against the accused on the basis of the woman's statement.

In one of the cases in which a husband suspected his wife's fidelity and alleged that their child was not his, the Commission issued orders for a DNA test to be done. The test would be done free-of-cost as the woman belonged to a scheduled caste.

The Commission took up 125 cases for hearing today, of which 28 cases were settled. The hearing had to be postponed in about 30 cases as the opposite parties did not turn up and in the rest further investigative procedures are on.

The cases were handled by the chairperson of the Commission, M. Kamalam, the member, P. Kulsu, the secretary, P.K. Vasudevan, and the director, V. Shantaram.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Police obtain definite clues about culprits

Vilappil plant starts lifting garbage

Snag in CT scan machine hits diagnosis at MCH

Cases of soured marital ties dominate adalat