Hindu Marriage Law – Maintenance Amount

High Court gave a Verdict in a case of Mumbai family court about Hindu Marriage Law – Maintenance Amount

Recently the Bombay high court gave a verdict in which a case of Mumbai family court was strengthened. The verdict was to give maintenance of Rs 70,000 to a working wife. The maintenance amount has been discussed in Hindu Marriage Act 1955.

According to section s 24 of Hindu marriage act – Both cases where maintenance should be given to either husband or wife come under this act. If one does not have source of money then the maintenance amount should be given for important bills. This can be given to any party either husband or wife’s appeal. This also includes the court’s fees.

The law has such provisions for women always as most women were dependent on their husband for money as well as they takes care of family and children. In traditional Hindu marriage, women are not expected to work after marriage. A case should be highlighted here of Pramila (55) who had studied engineering. She left her job thirty years back after marriage as her husband’s job was in army and they had to travel anytime from one city to other. She also took care of their two children. Now her husband is divorcing her at the age of 55. He wants her to take care of herself as she had studied engineering.

Nowadays engineers get good salaries. However, why would anyone give a job to a 55-year-old woman when twenty five year old youth are also not getting jobs? Since she has been out of work since 20 years and has been taking care of children. So is her degree now valid for today’s scenario of jobs. The section 24 s saves s such women from facing financial difficulties.

After this law as made, many things have changed since then. Most women are educated and are working nowadays. They are financially stable too. One more case example is cited. The husband Ashok who is a pilot and earns five lakh rupees per month while his wife Supriya earns around Rs 60,000 per month as an airhostess. They have a six-year-old boy. Even after the women was working the family court gave the verdict of maintenance amount to be given to the wife as the child’s and home responsibility is still with the women. If the child gets sick, the woman is expected to take leave and take care of the child.

This law also has a gatekeeper. If it is studied carefully then there is no mention of amount of maintenance decided to be paid to the women. This is according to husband’s lifestyle and salary. It is therefore important that the lawyers who are representing this case should have all the facts cleared before the court. The amount of maintenance granted depends on the judgment of the court.

Under section 24, many changes are seen in today’s scenario. In many cases, the wife is earning more than the husband is. Because this section should not be misused, that is why court amends with the working of the woman. If the court finds that a woman is capable of earning then they are told likewise. If the women do not share their actual earnings then the verdict is not justified properly.

The question here arises that will the man always be on the giving end. In many such cases proper judgment has been given where the wife s earning more than the husband does. Many such women have misused this law. As this law is to pave the way for woman to work and be independent and not the opposite. However, sometimes it is misused to become rich quickly.

Fact – Bombay high court the highest maintenance to a woman in a case where the amount was 50% of his income.

Supreme Court about Rape cases punishment - no to compromise, mediation

Supreme Court verdict for Rape cases -  Punishment cannot be reduced or softened 

Supreme Court has made it clear that no punishment can be altered, modified, softened, or changed in Rape related cases. The Supreme Court’s verdict, “That no middle path or kind behavior can be shown towards these rape criminals” has condemned the lower court’s decision. 

In recent years, Supreme Court had given such verdicts, which made the rape cases punishment without much after effect in many courts of India. Based on settlement between the victim and Rapist the courts have declared that the punishment sentence can be reduced or modified. The verdict of Judge Deepak Mishra and Prafful C Pant in July 2015 is a milestone in this path.

In Madhya Pradesh Madanlal’s case, the judge condemned the MP Supreme Court’s case. MP’ supreme court had changed the section 376 (rape) punishment to section 354 (eve teasing) in the above case. The police appealed in Supreme Court against this decision. In short, the rapist was under trail for rape with a seven-year-old girl. The act was committed in 2008 and he was given hardcore jail punishment. The MP supreme court changed the accusations under section 354 and released the criminal in lieu of completed the punishment earlier. 

The judge summarized the explanation and noted that the Supreme Court authorities just wrote in the verdict that ‘the guilty party produced so many witnesses and documents’ is not enough to pass the verdict in such cases and sent the case back to the Supreme Court. 

He added further that the MP supreme court’s judge had been swayed by the settlement between the victim’s parents and the guilty. In Haryana Shimbhu case, the Supreme Court had given this verdict in 2014 as follows – 

Just because the settlement has been done between the two parties does not mean that the punishment can be reduced. Rape is such a heinous crime in which no settlement can be done. It is against the society and is not a subject to be left between parties for settlement. In lieu of proper justice and saving the victim from unnecessary pressure, it is important that no importance should be given to settlement of case. 

He added that this is against the women’s body, which is considered a holy place. This is such a worst crime, which takes away the life and happiness of an individual. It disregards the honor of the women and makes it difficult for her to stay normally in society. In some cases the marriage between victim and guilty is materialized but this no way out and creates extreme pressure on the victim. This crime can have no scope of any form of settlement or reducing or modifying of the punishment. In other words, any kind of settlement is prohibited in Rape cases.

By Poonam Kaushik, High Court Advocate, Delhi 

Maternity and Paternity Leave Laws India In Hindi and English

Laws about Maternity and Paternity Leave in Private or Government Sector 

Central Work Minister Bandaru Datray has put forward the maternity leave benefit agenda in parliament on Monday. The government is working on extending the maternity leave from three months to six months. It is important to know more about maternity and paternity leave laws. Let us have a look - 

The maternity leave rule was formed in 1961. This provided leave benefits to women who are about to become mothers while their work period. The first laws for mothers benefits came into action in the first international labor conference in 1919. In this leave to female employees for 6 weeks prior to pregnancy and then 6 weeks after pregnancy was put to action. Some amendments were made in it in 1952.

Some important points under maternity leave benefit Law -

No employer can deliberately put any female employee to work before six months after her abortion or pregnancy.

Female employee would be entitled for total 12 weeks of leaves, i.e. six weeks prior and six weeks later after pregnancy.

A female employee can ask the employer to give her light/easier work, ten weeks prior to pregnancy. This step has been taken for the better health of the woman and her child. She would have to submit a written notice for the same to the employer 7 months prior to due date.

If the female employee cannot be present to avail her salary then she can appoint some person on behalf of her for the same.

Until the newborn is of 15 months of age, the female employee would be entitled for two breaks in the day of 15 minutes each for feeding her child.

For the operation of abortion and sterilization, all female employees are entitled for 6 weeks of leave with pay.

Any female would be entitled for maternity leave if she has worked minimum for a year earlier in the organization and has worked for at least 80 days in a year.

The Maternity benefits-

If the female employee is not well then she can be granted one more month of leave other than 12 weeks of maternity leave.

No female employee can be terminated during pregnancy nor can be kept devoid of her maternity benefits. If such is the case then she can appeal under appellate authority within 60 days of joining the job.

Her salary cannot be decreased while she is pregnant. If that happens then the concerned person can be jailed for three months and fined up to five thousand rupees.

Many amendments have also been added to the maternity laws. As the amendment in 2008 says all female employees, becoming mothers would be entitled for a medical bonus of thousand rupees.

All those females who are not on roll of the company will also avail the benefits of maternity leave laws under the 1961 benefits rule. This was amended under the case of female employee of municipal corporation Delhi. The law states that benefits should be given in such a ways that the female employee gets healthier to take care of her baby.

The appeal for increasing the maternity benefits from 12 to 24 weeks was done at 44th Indian Labor Conference.

Paternity Leave -

Under paternity leave, the male employee can avail 15 days paid leave to take care of his wife and child. This can be availed by the male employee twice in his work tenure. The main difference between maternity and paternity leave is the number of days granted for the male employee is fifteen with pay.

Maternity and Paternity Leave

Nandita Jha, High Court Advocate, Delhi

Godrej Group introduces unlimited sick leave policy

Employee can take as many days off as he/she is unwell

The group earlier had an annual sick leave quota of 10 days that could be accumulated. It has done away with that and introduced a policy where if someone is sick he/she needs to keep the supervisor informed and can take as many days off as he/she is unwell.

Godrej says that after introducing this system of unlimited sick leaves recently, the average number of sick leaves taken by its employees has come down to 8 days per year from 9.2 days a year two years ago. "Contrary to popular belief that you give the employee a facility and it will be misused, we actually see employees getting far more conscientiousness in terms of looking at things like this," said Mitra.

Also, Godrej's new building in Vikroli campus has no attendance recording. There is only swipe which is for security and access. "We are removing the policies and infrastructures that bind you," said Mitra.

Making a big change in its hospitalisation and insurance policy, the group has reduced the number of levels to just two from 5-6 slabs earlier. This means all managers, from the managing director down to an entry level manager, will have the same hospitalisation limit. The limit for internal company coverage on hospitalisation at Godrej is set at Rs 6 lakh. Also, the company will now take care of 50% of the hospitalisation expense beyond the limit.

Going forward, the group plans to have just one level, giving a salesman the same hospitalisation benefits as the managing director.

Also, this year the group has taken a conscious focus on gender diversity. It has created a full-time team of senior managers who will be focusing on gender and has set specific gender diversity targets for group companies for the next three years. To monitor this, the group has set up a diversity council that consists of all business heads. It has also started sensitisation and training around diversity for all employees and runs a network on women.

To encourage cross functional movements, the group has made a policy decision that any job in Godrej will be advertised to everyone across the group.

Earlier jobs were advertised internally to the same business. If one is selected for a post, his/her employer must release that employee within three months.

News Source - http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-07-17/news/64535480_1_godrej-group-strong-employer-brand-sumit-mitra

Maternity Leave to be granted for Surrogacy

Maternity Leave should be granted for Surrogacy too

Delhi High court has cleared this recently that those women working in government jobs who become mothers through surrogacy are also entitled for maternity leave. According to court if such women are not given maternity leaves then it is harmful for both the child and the mother. The court specified that to not grant maternity leave to women is to close our eyes towards scientific development of the world. In January, Kerala High court gave the verdict in an important case that there could be no discrimination between a genetic and a surrogate mother. Therefore, the surrogate mother can also avail all benefits like the genetic mother.

This should be known that in the above case the Kerala Animal development board’s deputy chairperson was not allowed maternity leave by stating that she is not a genetic mother of the child. The Madras high court also gave a similar decision in 2013. The question here arises that why only the genetic mothers get maternity leave and those women who cannot give birth to their own child and opt for surrogacy are not allowed the same and have to ask help from court. In addition, another question is when a women who adopts a child is given maternity leave then why not the women who opts for surrogacy. The central complaint pension and training department had asked the states to give equal rights and benefits to those women who adopt and become a mother but many states did not abide by these rules. Many big private companies provide monetary benefits and maternity leaves for women who adopt a child but in these cases, also there is no mention of surrogacy motherhood.

Profit and Loss myopic view-

The profit and loss myopic view of companies is making the confidence of women weaker. Motherhood is considered a personal thing and so government and private companies see it as a burden on them. That is why there are discrepancies in granting the maternity leave of 90 to 180 days. When a woman takes care of a child then she plays an important role in the development and growth of the country. The laws will be successful only when they amend as per changing scenarios. Uttrakhand Government had taken the decision to grant maternity leave to women who become mothers through surrogacy in 2014. However, such a decision needs to be taken in the whole country.

Maternity Leave to be granted for Surrogacy

# Ritu Saraswat social worker -