Is it really the husbands who suffer all the time?

When the country is deciding to take pride in its women, this Republic day, by allowing them to participate in the parade for the first time, the meninist approach of Supreme Court is a pertinent question. The late arrival of such a step can always be questioned but is the Supreme Court taking a step back when the country is deciding to take a step ahead in recognizing ‘Nari Shakti’? The Supreme Court recently said that transfer petitions cannot always be in favor of women because the law is to provide the accused a fair trial. The bench asked, “Estranged wives seeking transfer of cases, filed by husbands, to their places of residence has become the order of the day. We had become too liberal in acceding to their requests. But the husbands also have a right. Why the husbands should be always made to suffer”.While I read this piece from a national daily, I honestly wished that the Supreme Court did not intend to say this.

Every legal procedure is drafted to deliver a fair trial to the accused. But in the process it has to be checked that it is the victim who needs justice. Presumption of innocence is the trend of law but the assertiveness of presumption should not hinder the deliverance of justice. The reasoning adopted by the Supreme Court was that by allowing a transfer petition in favor of the wife, the husband has to undergo an exhaustive process by sacrificing his work. Considering a situation where the wife is also working, allowing transfer petition on the husband’s favor would compel her to move to his city. Even if the patriarchal society leaves out the economic loss that she might suffer, can it have the decency to consider that her safety will be jeopardized? While such decision has to be based on the facts of the case, the Supreme Court is perhaps alarmed by the false cases registered against husbands. While unfair advantage has to be strongly condemned, the society needs to accept that the violence inflicted on women is incomparable to the violence inflicted on men. Fictitious complaints should not defeat the purpose of justice deliverance.

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About the Author: The article has been contributed by our intern, Shristi Banerjee.