Majlis

Challenging the Archaic Divorce Laws of Christians

The Divorce Laws applicable to Christians were archaic and contained several anti-women biases of the Victorian era. While a husband could obtain divorce
on the ground of adultery alone, the wife had to prove an
additional ground either of
cruelty or desertion. Cruelty and desertion did not constitute independent grounds of divorce.

Since adultery is extremely difficult to prove, and not all husbands who treat their wives with cruelty or desert them also commit adultery, the Christian women faced great hardships and were discriminated against both vis-a-vis Christian men and vis-a-vis women governed by other matrimonial statutes. Though subsequently, cruelty to wives had become an offence under the penal code, such cruelty did not entitle the Christian wife to a divorce.

Though Christian women had waged a sustained campaign for law reform, due to the opposition from the Catholic Church, the government was reluctant to bring in any changes. Finally the Full Bench of the

Kerala High Court stuck down the offensive provisions of S.10 of the IDA as arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of Constitution. Since it was a High Court ruling, its effects were confined only to the State of Kerala. So in 1996, Majlis initiated proceedings in the Bombay High Court and in April 1997, the Full Bench of the Bombay High Court also struck down the discriminatory provisions. (Pragati Verghese v Cyril Verghese AIR 1997 Bom 349 FB) Through this judgment, in Maharashtra, cruelty, adultery and desertion were made into separate grounds of divorce for women.

Thereafter, the struggle for law reform through a statutory amendment was launched. We negotiated among Christian congregations, religious leaders and Christian Members of Parliament. The challenge was to bring all stakeholders to the negotiating table to work out common grounds of reform. Thereafter we, along with representatives of other organizations, met the Law Minister and urged him to amend the Indian Divorce Act. Finally, a new amendment bill was enacted in Parliament in August 2001 and came into effect in September 2001. Apart from making cruelty, adultery and desertion independent grounds of divorce, the amendment also granted the Christians the remedy of divorce through mutual consent.