NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - The Indian cabinet has approved major changes in the country's Christian divorce laws to end their current discrimination in favor of men, a government source said Friday.
The changes in the Indian Divorce Act (IDA) -- which have been backed by most church groups and political parties -- will come into force after they are approved by parliament.
The changes will allow Christian couples to divorce by mutual consent which is presently not allowed by the law, the source said.
Christian couples seeking to separate by mutual consent had to take recourse to provisions of the law which allowed divorce only under charges like adultery or cruelty by a spouse.
"The IDA was a replica of the 19th century English Divorce Act which England did away in 1923," the source told reporters. "Some of its provisions are anachronistic."
"Christian women could seek divorce under fewer grounds than men. And some of these grounds were biased in favor of men."
For instance, the source said, while a Christian husband could obtain a divorce by proving his wife was adulterous, a Christian wife had to not only prove her husband was adulterous but that he was also cruel or indulged in incest.
"The changes will ensure that the same grounds are applicable to both the husband and wife," the source said.
BACKED BY CHURCHES
Indian churches, which represent the 23 million Christians in a predominantly Hindu country of one billion, had given their approval to the changes when they were consulted about them by a parliamentary panel, the source said.
The other significant change would be to empower district judges as the final arbiter in marital disputes. Under existing provisions of the IDA, an order of the district court is valid only when it is confirmed by a provincial court.
"This caused a lot of delays as a full bench of a high (provincial) court does not assemble frequently," the source said.
Lastly, the changes would also do away with the cap on alimony wives could receive.
Currently, a wife receives only a fifth of her adulterous husband's earnings as alimony, while the husband gets the entire property or earnings of his adulterous wife as alimony.
The word divorce, will, however, not be used in the act and separation will be referred to as "dissolution of marriage." "Some sections of the Catholic church were sensitive to the use of the word divorce," the source said.
"But these changes are a great step forward in personal laws. Christian women can assert themselves better under these laws."
09:54 08-17-01
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