Maneka Gandhi, Union Women and Child Development Minister said that her ministry has sent an order in this regard to all registrars to ensure the registration of NRI marriages. The ministry will then prepare a database of the NRI marriages.
She said there is a proposal to send a court summons through an External Affairs Ministry portal to NRIs who abandon their wives. As per the proposal, after the summon if the NRI does not appear in court, his family property will be put in the custody until he returns and resolves the issue.
According to the Ministry, any women can come forward in cases of being deceived or cheated by NRI husbands.
Source: Supplied
The Ministry recently issued six Look Out Circulars on the issue, and in five cases passports were revoked by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Ms Gandhi made the comments during the launch of India's first Advanced Forensic Laboratory in Chandigarh dedicated to women related sexual assault cases.
According to the Tribune India newspaper, Ms Gandhi is reported to have said, “If a woman suspects that her NRI husband can desert her, she can send an email at min-wcd@nic.in.
"Recently, such complaints were received against six NRIs who were then stopped from flying abroad. A committee consisting of Joint Secretaries from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD Ministry) and Home Ministry and two lawyers has been constituted to decided if the NRI should leave or stay,” said the minister.
“If a woman suspects that her NRI husband can desert her, she can send an email at min-wcd@nic.in. Recently, such complaints were received against six NRIs who were then stopped from flying abroad.”
Forensic lab for rape cases
At the launch of the forensic DNA laboratory in Chandigarh Ms Gandhi said the facility will help process cases of sexual assault faster and more effectively and reduce case backlog and deliver faster justice to women & children.
The lab is being set up as a model forensic lab and would be replicated in other parts of the country.
The current capacity for investigating rape cases is 160 cases per year, but the new Sakhi Suraksha Advanced DNA Forensic Laboratory will hope to increase the capacity to 2000 cases per year.
Five other labs are also planned for Mumbai, Chennai, Guwahati, Pune and Bhopal which will bring the annual capacity of the labs to 50,000 cases.
One stop centres
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has also set up 193 one-stop centres, called Sakhi, for women who are afraid to go the police station for lodging a complaint of domestic violence or rape. This kind of centre will be set in each district, where women will get the services of a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse and a psychologist.
