[1]In a bid to make divorce more women-friendly, the Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to few more amendments in the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, which include a clearly defined share in husband’s immovable residential properties and six months’ cooling-off period.
The amendments in the bill, which is pending in the Rajya Sabha, were approved following demands by the Opposition parties and civil society.
The Union Cabinet meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod to a set of new amendments to the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, which was introduced in
the Rajya Sabha on May 2.
Accepting one of the major demand of the Opposition, the Cabinet approved a proposal to retain the mandatory six-month cooling period.
Earlier, the bill had proposed to do away with the cooling-off period in case of divorce with mutual consent.
However, it has been decided that the cooling period could be waived off if both the parties move the application for divorce together. Sources said that this has been done to ensure that the cooling period is not waived off if only one party moves the divorce application, which the Opposition had demanded to make the process more women-friendly.
Further, sources said, the women will have to move an application to get share in her husband’s property as part of the settlement after the divorce is granted. Also, the Cabinet, sources said, has approved an amendment to ensure that the wife and children get a clearly defined share in the husband’s immovable residential property if there happens to be split of the property.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/wedding2jpgcropdisplayjpg-925