Govt to legalise online summons/warrants, assets to be seized in case of defiance
NRI husbands abandoning their wives would soon face the legal music as the Centre plans to bring in a law to deal with them.
Union Minister of External Affairs (MEA) Sushma Swaraj on Friday said the Government will frame a law — Summons and Warrants Against Indian People living Abroad — in the next session of Parliament entailing serving of summons and warrants online and confiscation of property of NRI husbands who defy the law.
“The law will enable online serving of summons/warrants on Indians/NRIs living abroad through a new MEA website. It is mainly targeted at NRIs who have abandoned their wives. We will upload summons and warrants on the website and those not responding to it will be declared a proclaimed offender and his properties would be seized.
“We will get a law to this effect passed preferably in the next session of Parliament,” Swaraj said after inaugurating day-long national seminar on “NRI marriages and trafficking of women and children”, jointly organised by the MEA and the Maharashtra State Commission for Women.
The Government is in the process of developing a portal too, she said, adding that the law Ministry, the Home Ministry and the Women and Child Development Ministry have agreed to the proposal.
According to the MEA, 3,328 complaints were received during the last three years (January 2015 to November, 2017) from distressed Indian women deserted by their NRI spouses. In Punjab alone, there are over 15,000 women who are affected with this menace.
“We are acting tough in such cases. For a start, the passports of eight NRI men accused of abandoning their wives have been cancelled. The accused whose passports were revoked have surrendered,” she added.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said till the time a law comes into force, an inter-ministerial coordination committee has been formed to look into grievances of affected women. “My Ministry gets 10-12 complaints regarding NRI marriages on a daily basis. Similar complaints come to the MEA. The committee does coordination work and ensures that each case is handled effectively so that aggrieved women get relief,” she said.
Talking about the problem of trafficking of women and illegal immigration, Swaraj said a new phenomenon of “asylum seekers” have come to notice where youngsters in the age group 20-25 are trying to get to the US through Mexico and are getting caught on borders.
“We have come across three batches of around 500 people mostly from Punjab and Haryana who are illegally trying to get into the US. Illegal immigration agents are charging Rs 20-25 lakh for this. It is a very dangerous trend which we need to stop,” she added. Sushma lamented despite her repeated requests, State Governments have failed to take action against illegal agents who are operating freely.
Maharashtra State Women Commission Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar said the State panel has taken various initiatives to tackle the problem of NRI marriages and trafficking of women. “Apart from taking courts to doorsteps of affected people, we have published books in Marathi to make women aware of various social problems affecting them.
“We have also created a helpline and a special cell for NRI marriages in Maharashtra, a first-of-its-kind initiative in India. We have urged the Foreign Minister to create a similar cell at the national level,” Rahatkar said.
Rahatkar further said, “Similarly cases of trafficking of women and children are also growing. Trafficking of Indians to other nations and of women of other nationalities, particularly from Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma and erstwhile Russian Federation nations are on the rise. We also need to find ways to address this burning issue.”