राष्ट्रीय महिला आयोग

The persisting division of 'private' versus 'public' spaces which views the entry of law in homes as "bull in the china shop" has been largely responsible for keeping the homes considerably insulated from the legal system, notwithstanding the fact that some of the grossest rights' violations happen within the 'sacrosanct' four-walls of the homes. This dilemma, coupled with the sensitive and delicate nature of matrimonial relationships per se, are largely responsible for making the entire gamut of matrimonial disputes one of the most challenging and complex areas for legal intervention within any system. What makes it further complex particularly in the Indian context is the fact that in the absence of uniform civil laws, the personal laws of each religious community continue to be different in this country, thus making the matrimonial disputes, especially in inter-religious marriages, even more difficult to deal with.

In this already complex scenario where matrimonial disputes are placed, the legal complications get multiplied manifold when a marriage steps out of the borders of a country and therefore the boundaries of the country's legal system, in a phenomenon that has come to be known as the "NRI marriages". These marriages have to then enter the domain - often called the 'maze' - of private international law that deals with the interplay and conflict of laws of different countries, which makes the issues therein that much more complex as will be explained later hereunder.

Even though this is a gender-neutral term, typically the "NRI marriages", as generally understood, are between an Indian woman from India and an Indian man residing in another country (thus NRI - non-resident Indian), either as Indian citizen (when he would legally be an 'NRI') or as citizen of that other country (when he would legally be a PIO - person of Indian origin). With the characteristic Indians' penchant for migration to foreign countries, such alliances are seen as the most coveted ones in Indian society, promising greener pastures for not just the woman but her entire family.

In the eagerness not to let go of such lucrative association proposal, the families totally ignore even the common cautions that are observed in traditional matchmaking. They also ignore that in case of things going awry in an NRI marriage, the woman's recourse to justice is greatly constrained by the reason that such marriage are not governed any more by only the Indian legal system but by the far more complex private international laws involving the legal system of the other country too. They even ignore the plain and simple fact that just logistically for a woman to negotiate her way to justice across thousands of miles would be a thoroughly exasperating experience. The aggravated risks in such marriages, the woman being isolated far away from home in an alien land, inevitably facing constraints of language, communication, lack of knowledge of local criminal justice, police and legal system, lack of support network of friends and family to turn to, lack of immediate and readily available monetary support and a place to take shelter in, are issues that no one likes to talk or hear about at the time of marriage. It is therefore hardly surprising that there is growing evidence today that even as the number of NRI marriages is escalating by thousands every year, with the increasing Indian Diaspora, the number of matrimonial and related disputes in the NRI marriages have also risen proportionately, infact at most places much more than proportionately.