KANPUR:
Mohit (name changed), an employee of multinational bank, has a strained relationship with his wife who is a management executive in a business institution. Due to ego clash, they start living separately and file separation suit in the family court.
This is just a case in point. There are several such cases pending in the family court. Economic parity, ego clash and adoption of Western culturehave given rise to matrimonial discord in the country. The number of such cases is increasing. The Supreme Court had expressed concern a few months back and stated that each district of the country now needs a family court. So far, there are 465 districts that have a family court.
Kanpur is witnessing increase in matrimonial disputes. As many as 3319 cases had been registered in family court in 2011. The figure was around 2,100 in 2010. In 2009, around 1,570 cases were registered. Of the 3,319 new cases, there are 1,900 cases of matrimonial disputes (separation, divorce, 'bidai' and restitution of conjugal rights).
There is stagnation in maintenance cases. There were around 1,255 cases of maintenance against 1,300 in 2010. In 2009, the figure was almost same. In 2008, the number of maintenance cases stood at 1,110.
Asha Sharma, a lawyer, claimed that the way society was changing, the matrimonial life was also being affected. Economic parity of both the spouses and ego clash were the main causes for breaking the matrimony. Explaining her point, she said most of the earning couples today were undergoing ego clashes.
The reconciliation officers of family court said zero tolerance was witnessed in spouses in cases where both partners were earning. It becomes difficult in pacifying and pushing them to reach an amicable settlement.
The worst factor in such strained relationship was blind support of the family members.
Instead of trying to unite them, the relatives add fuel by making it a prestige issue, said Suresh Kumar, a lawyer dealing with matrimonial cases.
According to a judicial official said that changing culture was the reason of disintegration of the families. The joint family culture is a matter of past. Concept of nuclear family is fading fast, he added.
Another lawyer DK Pathak said law-makers had made the separation easy in Hindu Marriage Act. Section 13 of the act points out those spouses can separate with mutual consent. The worst sufferers in matrimonial disputes are children. They are deprived of the affection of the father or the mother.
