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Pre-Nup Pact Lacks Bite: Women’s Rights Groups
In a rough start, most of the women’s rights bodies are not on board with the Women and Child Ministry’s proposal to legalise ‘prenuptial agreement’, saying it could do more harm than good.
Instead of a pre-nuptial agreement, many groups want a full financial disclosure in front of attorney of assets and liabilities ahead of marriage. “That will be a good start; in case of a divorce, the courts will have a point to begin with and the wife will not have to go chasing for the husbands pay slips and assess his income,” a senior official from the ministry said.
In India, as per the Indian contracts Act 1872, pre-nuptial agreement is not valid. The ministry proposed to change this to give immediate relief to women in case of divorce and separation instead of going through courts.
The women’s groups, however, felt that without necessary safeguards “prenuptial agreement” will not help majority of women. The groups argue that a contract can be entered into only by two individuals with equal bargaining power, which is not usually the case in Indian marriages where many times women’s consent is also not sought.
Radhika Chitkara from Partners for Law in Development, who attended the meeting, said that there is fear that a pre-nuptial agreement will meet the same fate as previous women’s laws. She said recently, the Hindu Accession Laws were amended to make daughters too eligible to inherit anscestral property but many are forced to sign relinquishment deed.
Source: Bangalore Mirror